Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Council vote last night confirms Blackboy Lane name change
Last night the Council's Corporate Committee voted to change the name of Blackboy Lane to La Rose Lane. The change comes after a drawn out process started by the previous Council leader in 2020.
The vote came after a 'further period of consultation' which ended last month. The report sent to committee last night summarised the vote conducted during the 'further consultation' as showing 78% of all respondents being against the name change, 22% in favour. The voting of Blackboy Lane residents was very similar.
The introduction of the report sent to committee on the issue said
If the Committee decides not to make the Order, (it) would demonstrate that the Council has actively sought local resident views, the majority of whom object to the proposal....
a decision not to make an Order would mean that the name which has been found to be offensive by local residents and visitors to the borough would continue to be in place. The catalyst for the consideration of this renaming was the establishment of the Commission on Diversity in the Public Realm by the Mayor of London. Not going ahead with the renaming at this point would not capitalise on the momentum created by the Black Lives Matter movement
The report to Committee also recommended:
a support package including a ‘voluntary payment’ of £300 and administrative assistance be made available to all households and businesses of Black Boy Lane to minimise any inconvenience resulting from the processes required to reflect the renaming.
I do not currently have details on whether or not this part of the recommendation was also accepted.
The name will change to La Rose Lane from 1st February 2023.
Download the full report from Haringey Council's website here.
I won't go through the arguments for and against as they have already been well-rehearsed on this site.
- main HoL discussion on this issue here.
- last discussion about the reviving of this issue last Novemeber here.
- all conversations about the issue here.
Thanks to Lydia Walter for flagging up an item on Radio London this morning about last night's vote.
Tags for Forum Posts: blackboy lane name change
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sixfaces on
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I guess this will mean the end of the most commented-on thread on HoL!
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You mean, goodbye local heritage, history and culture. How many generations have walked Black Boy Lane? How many families have lived there and in the surrounding area? Local identity being erased and for what? To solve a problem that's not there! To create division? To create long lasting emnity towards the councillors and the party responsible? To spend money that should be spent on schools and local youth services that would actually solve a problem! To make a token of a good man whose name will be used on the replacement sign?
Enough is enough. Time for change in Haringey.
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Presumably the new signage will have 'Formerly Black Boy Lane' on it. Another piece of misinterpreted history consigned to the bin by the slow, steady, regression of our society by nihilism.
"Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” - George Orwell (1984).
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And the renaming ceremony will conclude with book burning.
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Well I never. Authoritarianism is alive and well in Haringey isn't it. What was the point of the consultation if they were just going to ignore it anyway? Yep time for a radical change in this borough.
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It's a good point about the consultation. It would be good to know what sort of consultation response might have led to a withdrawal of the proposal, but clearly we never will. Perhaps if the vast majority of residents supported the proposal, the council might have withdrawn it...
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Permalink Reply by Rosamund Tomlins on
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Thanks Jim, a useful reference. Yes - it's absolutely comparable, in my opinion.
The above OP's figures refer to the most recent vote alone, but the whole process was a test of opinion, no obligation to do anything except consult (however wrong that may actually be seen to be, by the significant vocal few who expressed such an opinion on the main thread started back in October 2020, I believe). I saw in one of the published documents many supportive statements, although the woeful entry level quality of the overall consultation's design flaw has completely undermined the overall aim & remit.
Has Joseph Ejiofor's TV shown (BBC I think, last night) statement about where the overall majority lay been analysed & declared untrue at all?
Part of the perceived history of the name bears some testimony, in my opinion, to the undercurrent of accepted casual racism, or what might now be considered cultural appropriation (Charles II's nickname), of that time, which may now be realised as detrimental to the social cause, & may be tacitly accepting inequality's furtherance unfortunately, but because it's "historical" it seems that's OK for some. Even the aspect of chimney sweep boys has a very real element of social deprivation underlying the perhaps perceived cute image.
There's another year for the naysayers of the bigger picture to divert their most admirable energies potentially to try to put down a very visual example of social progress that this borough badly needs as an example, & there's always going to be the debate on how budgets are allocated, so I'm not commenting here on that. Those who expressed support for the change are mostly, wisely, keeping quiet, having had their say already.
On a personal level, on another forum I received quite appalling bullying diatribes from a few participants, when an inflammatory post appeared on this issue, one in particular who was so vile, that their argument became self-undermined. These included wild irrelevancies that, according to my logic, "White Heart (sic) Lane" for example, must therefore now be changed; also personal taunts, mockery, & notably threats, but actually what was more depressing in the long term, was the lack of cohesive thought among the unpleasantness in their arguments, showing themselves up (I wasn't the only one but I got it the worst because I was tenacious) without even comprehending the irony around the subject in question. Thankfully, debate on here appears to be of higher quality (much appreciation to the participants & moderators).
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