Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Council Decides to Rename Black Boy Lane
Following my consideration on the origins of West Green's Black Boy name back in the summer, Haringey Council has decided to rename Black Boy Lane in West Green.
The Council have called the exercise a 'renaming consultation', but the online questionnaire offers only the ability to choose from a shortlist of two new names. So it appears that the decision to rename has already been taken with only the choice of name left to be decided.
They have issued the following press release.
The council has launched a renaming consultation with residents and businesses located on Black Boy Lane, as part of the wider Review on Monuments, Buildings, Place and Street Names in Haringey – which was launched on 12 June 2020, in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
The council believes that the names of our monuments, buildings, places and streets must reflect the values and diversity that we are so proud of in the borough. One of the street names that has been identified as not being reflective of this is Black Boy Lane.
Meanings change over time, and the term “Black Boy” is now most commonly used as a derogatory name for African heritage men.
As part of the consultation, the council is asking residents to consider new alternative names that celebrate some of the borough’s most notable influencers, and truly reflect the borough’s rich heritage.
The two names that have been shortlisted for residents to consider are, ‘Jocelyn Barrow Lane’ and ‘La Rose Lane’. The consultation will launch today, Monday 28 September and will run for a period of 4 weeks to Monday 26 October 2020.
Letters will be arriving on Black Boy Lane residents' doorsteps this week, who can respond to the consultation using one of the following methods:
- Online: www.haringey.gov.uk/renaming-black-boy-lane.
- Email:
- bblconsultation@haringey.gov.uk
- Telephone: 020 8489 3797
- By post: Consultation Co-ordinator, The Communications Team, River Park House, 225 High Road, Wood Green, London, N22 8HQ
If Haringey residents have concerns or queries about place, street or building names in the borough, please get in touch. Send your views to Leader@haringey.gov.uk.
Bios:Dame Jocelyn Anita Barrow (15 April 1929 – 9 April 2020) was a Barbadian/Trinidadian British educator, community activist and politician, who was the Director for UK Development at Focus Consultancy Ltd. She was the first Black woman to be a governor of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and was founder and Deputy Chair of the Broadcasting Standards Council.
John La Rose was a publisher, poet and essayist. He founded the Caribbean Artists’ Movement and publishing company New Beacon Books which has a bookshop in Stroud Green. In 1975, he co-founded the Black Parents Movement from the core of the parents involved in the George Padmore Supplementary School incident in which a young Black schoolboy was beaten up by the police outside his school in Haringey.
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Tags for Forum Posts: blackboy lane name change, review on monuments, building place and street names
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Adrian Hackney on
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Leeds council carried out a consultation on a similar, though not identical, issue - that of statues. https://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/documents/s210869/Statues%20Review%2...
Its recommendations are measured and contain constructive ways of going forward rather than destruction of what exists.
The count of respondents suggests that calls for change come from a disproportionately noisy minority. https://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/documents/s210869/Statues%20Review%2...
A similar review in Haringey with broad enough terms to cover BBL might be less divisive than Cllr Ejiofor's assertions.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Many thanks, Adrian, for this contribution to the wider debate. One day, maybe in the near future, I hope we might have a ruling group on our Council which seizes the opportunity to think about and around all these issues more creatively, and from a better informed perspective. As they seem to have done in Leeds and at the Geffrye Museum.
But maybe I'm wrong and someone in Haringey has done some of this 'thinkwork' and perhaps even written a helpful background briefing paper. If so can it please be posted online.
Meanwhile it may be worthwhile for people to read through the widely circulating response of the Trustees of the George Padmore Institute to the proposal for John La Rose to be one of the two options for the renaming of Black Boy Lane.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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I wrote to the Padmore Institute yesterday to ask for permission to reproduce part of that response. But given the personal connection of people involved, with John La Rose, and the consequent sensitivity, I don't want to do so without their approval. So, if anyone has a copy, please don't try publishing it on HoL until I hear back from them.
PS: Alan, the way I read it, the response is clearly wider in scope than just he matter of John La Rose's name being used.
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Also similar but not identical is the case of the Geffrye statue. The trustees of the museum are so far not acting on the demands of a majority of consultation respondents to remove the statue. https://www.museumofthehome.org.uk/what-we-do/our-story/the-statue-...
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Thanks again, Adrian. Made me think about my random set of photos of historic "notables". Especially those philanthropists in bigwigs on plinths being celebrated for their good deeds.
I wonder how many of them were - like Ebenezer Scrooge - subject to a change of heart and transformation in behaviour if and when something happened to make them re-evaluate their past. The sinner who repents: isn't that a theme of some of the most highly regarded literature?
Or should we ban "Crime and Punishment" because we don't believe Raskolnikov could possibly have changed ?P.S. What's the latest news on Tommy Coram?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanstanton/3734888342/
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Permalink Reply by Kate on
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Haringey Council is asking (on its Facebook page) for comments on changing road names etc in Haringey. It wont let me cut and paste the link unfortunately.
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Try typing in shortened url - https://hgyol.in/3jcaEjC
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Yeah...We areall on Facebeurk, aren't we....not!
How ridiculous to consult on a private social media platform !
The results will obviously not be useful as they will not be representative.
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He is not consulting but advising for people to write to him directly. This is already what was mentioned in a statement he made on Haringey website where he says they had already identified BBL The answer firstly sign Petition, write to your CLLr and force him to put it for a public consultation not on choosing a name but whether we the residence want this waste of money or oppose it.
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I've just written to David Lammy MP:
'As a resident of Black Boy Lane, N15, I am outraged by the way that Haringey Council have bulldozed the renaming of my road onto the agenda.
There hasn't been any consultation about whether to rename the road but straight into two names chosen for the residents to consider. Whether to rename or not has been side-stepped.
The online consultation form gives the participant the options to 1) pick new name one 2) pick new name two or 3) I'm not fussed which new name is chosen. There isn't any option 4) Do not change the name!
The cost and inconvenience to rename for the residents, businesses and Haringey Council tax payers is just not appropriate in the recession we're going through - or at any time.Haringey Council has overstepped their authority and an independent review of their actions to date is required.Please look into this asap.'
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