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 Anna on
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Ah! My husband asked the same question and they sent us a link to who is on the committee. Completely our fault, we forgot to save it hors-chat. I will ask again for it, thank you.
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here is the list of all councillors sitting on the committee. It’s available from the council page. I have no intention of naming or shaming because I have seen some very reasonable positions adopted by some of those names, and I believe some are working hard to try to redress the situation. I am not interested in a generalised witch hunt but when said committee has been disbanded, I don’t see any guarantees that the gesture of good will promised will be followed through by whoever inherits this bag of ugly that the renaming process has been so far.
https://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/mgCommitteeMailingList.aspx?ID=730
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Permalink Reply by Nick Eftychiou on
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To be honest I don’t believe any of these councillors will go against the Council Leader who started this. I have sat on a panel, although slightly different, but found that when discussing or voting everyone seem to follow the leader..The consultation and panel is just a front. Mr Ejofor has decided and will make sure that the name is changed..full stop
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I can see the writing on the wall, yes. But I have also this stupid stubborn hope that fairness, democratic process, duty of care for all of Haringey residents, including the ones of BBL, will somehow prevail and we can start the whole conversation / process in a way Haringey can be proud of. I don’t want my borough to be dragged in a ‘Baby P’ scandal exposing council infighting, fingers pointing and heads rolling again.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Nick Eftychiou -
As an ex-councillor I find your comment sad and dispiriting. But entirely understandable. Cllr Ejiofor appears to have a view of leadership not dissimilar to Donald Trump. That it's all about him and his decisions and people having to be loyal and subservient. And I don't mean just councillors who are his family members and friends. On at least one occasion he told a "cabinet" colleague they were his "representative on earth".
But please don't lose hope. About half of the Labour councillors don't want him as leader of the Labour Group.
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That doesn't bode well for local democracy. But we have only ourselves to blame if we've let one man and a clique or friends and family members into a position where they think they can do as they please and ride roughshod over the views and interests of local residents.
It's good to hear that Julie Davies is not being cowed by Ejiofor. I hope the two other St Ann's councillors, Mike Hakata and Noah Tucker, help stand up to the bully and oppose the changes as well.
St Ann's ward has famously low turnouts for council elections (circa 20%). Something as divisive as this could result in a spike in voter interest and Labour wouldn't benefit from that.
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Will he be standing in the new Tottenham Central ward in 2022 Council elections?
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You might have seen that Momentum has crumbled after all the disgraces of the Corbyn fiasco and that Kier Starmer's more centrist faction has regained control of Labour. I suspect this means the party would not support him restanding. However, we might stand again for another party. There have been a few hard left alternatives lately and given voter apathy in Tottenham he might just get in again but he won't be the leader. This is why he's keen to make this mess before leaving.
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Ew! That's disgusting.
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Then maybe the councillors who don’t want him should start the process of removing him. There must be a way. And while they are at it maybe they should put it back to the people to vote whether they want an elected leader chosen by the people rather than by other Cllr’s.
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May I suggest Nick, that an elected mayor would be a change in the wrong direction. How do think the candidates for mayors - or indeed for the council - are chosen? By the same diseased system as at present.
And if a mayor turns out to be useless or damaging you're stuck with them for four years. With even fewer checks and balances to hold back their stupidities.
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