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 Hugh on
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I'm glad you feel that you're in a position to be so absolutely certain about the history of this issue, Gina.
What the staff at Bruce Castle Museum did was what I'd expect any historian to do. They offered up the possible alternatives, considered some of the evidence for each and offered routes for futher investigation.
They're a small team with many priorities. I'm sure that, had they but world enough and time, they could have undertaken an exhaustive research project. Had they done so, I'm sure they could have offered a more granular examination of the evidence. But, bar the unlikely discovery of a smoking gun, I think the conclusion would have been broadly similar to the one they've already offered; that is to say that there are a few possibilities about the origin of the name, but that there is insufficient evidence to say conclusively which is the single true origin.
You may argue the toss on the emphasis in what they've written, which is a wholly appropriate part of academic discourse and it's good to see you providing a link to support your point of view (but I note that the BBC document linked to in your link carefully only claims that 'pubs across England called The Black Boy are generally named after Charles'). You may also wish that what Bruce Castle wrote was more detailed, but I've explained why this couldn't be the case.
Personally, I'm very grateful for the time they took to share their knowledge. It was certainly deeper than mine on this issue and I feel that they advanced general understanding of the issue in an impartial way and I learned from what they said.
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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I cannot believe that after 68 pages of This Great Debate, nobody has contributed a jot or tittle for the past three days. Can it be that the problem is solved and peace has broken out on all sides? Possibly not. I had thought that Adrian H's appeal to the Latin roots of denigratio several pages back would have brought a noctem quietam et finem perfectum to the BBL controversy. Now, much more seriously, if your discussion extends for another 68 pages the language and its spelling will undergo its most deleterious revolution since the Great Vowel Shift if Gina H's entomology and StephenBln's entymology indicate that creepy crawlies are busily at work on the very etymology of our placenames.
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Fatality.... are we confronted by a hopeless situation when faced with council politicians who just do as they please? Especailly when they are "a shoe in" as is the case in Haringey? They get away with murder.
Spending thousands of ££ when the physicalcal environment and urban realm leads people to call Tottenham a '"shithole" is just perverse!
But hey. If people like it that way who I am I to argue?
I just think that I deserve to live in a place that feels and looks nice, especailly when I live in the capital city of one of the top ten economies in the world.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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OAE I was hoping you'd come up with a solution which headed off the likely financial crisis should Cllr Ejiofor's review determine that hundreds (thousands?) of roads across the entire borough have shocking historical links. Here's an idea.
Let's recall the Argentinian writer Borges' list of animals which began:
(a) Belonging to the emperor. (b) Embalmed. (c) Tame. (d) Sucking pig. (e) Sirens. (f) Fabulous.
(g) Stray dogs. (h) Included in the present classification. (i) Frenzied. (j) Innumerable. (k) Drawn with a very fine camelhair brush.Which we could easily adapt for favoured road names;
(a) Names with a certificate of political correctness approved by the Leader
(b) Names proposed by a panel of councillors who act as though embalmed, or (c) tame or
(d) sucking up to the Leader.
(e) Sirens - you know who I mean.
(f) Fabulous.Under the category "Fabulous" could be included names referring to Local History. Along the lines of the Irish streetname "Long Woman's Grave". We already have Monument Way. And Seven Sisters Road can quickly be updated to Seven Siblings.
Plus we'll need Lord and Ladyship Lane. As Bruce Castle is not actually a castle it should not offend anyone. But in any case the ruling cabinet could appoint a Winston Smith Committee of local estate agents and property developers to come up with fictional names which might inflate house prices. For instance hinting at world famous gardens and suchlike. Or pretending posh or even royal connections. "Mews" is obviously better than some nameless dumped back alley.
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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The council only needs to inform 'the residents' that re-naming to a 'cuter' name, and La Rose Lane is a cuter name, will add 50 thou' to the value of their properties and they will all be for it overnight. Bets anyone?
All the rest is hyperbole.
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Permalink Reply by Adrian Hackney on
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Owner occupiers. Tenants won't want the rent going up. Landlords - probably not even aware of a tiny squall in a modest size tea cup.
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Agree.. That's not my point bro.
BUT, many, the majority of non-residents assume that name has some bad meaning.
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Well, you as self anointed HOL Know it all, should know how I know. BTW, have you got your old lightbulbs back yet? Going well isn't it..
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StephenBln (page 1 above) recalled hearing that BBL had been named in honour of a horse, one Black Boy. Seems to me residents should agree to calling BBL 'Black Beauty Lane'. OK, author Anna Sewell only lived in Dalston from Age 2, then in Stoke Newington from 12 to 16, so we're stretching the criteria for renaming a wee bit. But think of all the other pluses of 'Black Beauty' for a local street and pub. They could even rename Chestnuts as 'Black Beauty School' - the novel still ranks among the top ten of children's books.
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