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 andy h on
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Not to mention Land Registy. Blimey what a palava, and I was going to suggest just take out the "Boy" - we do have a Green Lanes not far away after all .
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Mind you if name changes take off you could turn the ladder into a colour card. "Elephants breath Road" anyone???
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It is MADNESS to spend that kind of money to change a name in these circumstances.
Our Council has SERIOUS 'resource availability' problems that will only get worse with the COVID situation.
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With you on that.
But I don't expect the problem to go away, not until some sleuth finds a definitive answer as to the origin of the name or the council just do it.
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Symbols do count so there can be merit in changing street names. But.....
When you see how they (Haringey) keep explaining that they can do nothing about reversing the ill-conceived Grainger plan at Seven Sisters - yes, I like to harp on about it because it is relevant to the same Black Lives Matter struggle i.e how black and brown (but not only) minorities are treated.
A whole group of brown people's livelihoods (small-scale entrepreneurs and seed businesses) has been completely devastated by Haringey Council colluding with Big Corporarte interests to redevelop prime property and disguise it as regeneration when it does exactly the opposite.
It excludes, ejects the brown people, from being self-dependant and is a total injustice. You need to look at who are the 'victims' and who really benefits from the so-called regeneration. They are throwing the crumbs for the black people and diverting the big profits of public subsidy and investment to the same vested interest groups.
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I'll be surprised if LBH finances would suffer under this pandemic, their income is completely assured, but Covid-19 will be the excuse to slash services.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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I briefly did street naming and numbering work when I was employed by the London Borough of Camden. The first principle was always (when naming or renaming a street or a block) that a call to emergency services should not be confusing. If someone is on the phone trying to report a fire or get an ambulance, the person taking the call should not have to spend time on trying to find out whether it was Camden Road/Street/Square the panicked caller was referring to. Secondly that the name should be easy to understand and not lead to phonetically misunderstanding (Churchill Road versus Birch Hill Road for instance). Finally that the road should have local resonance to it, so I would have been unlikely to agree to a Buckingham Palace Road in Kentish Town.
It’s also perhaps worth remembering that many roads have been renamed in the past because what is found to be acceptable changes. There were many in the City of London that didn’t fit with later sensibilities and were changed. Have a look at the origins of Grape Lane and Fetter Lane for example.
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Interesting, Michael. When it came time to select the name, was it from a list of pre-screened or approved contenders, or did each search create an ad hoc approval process? Were names submitted by residents/developers/Councillors/council workers?
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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I looked at this yesterday and found scarce info on the internet. Michael Anderson may be able to bring his background to bear. But, in the meantime, I'm happy to share what I found.
Most renaming costs discussion on the web originates from the US. But I did find one UK city that gave some info.
Birmingham's website gives the following costs as being associated with street renaming:
- Magistrates court costs (estimate): £4,000 to £5,000
- Staff costs: £1,500.
Looking at the US, the consensus for the cost to a city of street renaming seems to be about $10,000. (One Virginia City estimates $13,000. A city in New Mexico could be $6,000).
Taking the Birmingham figure and adding the US estimates, perhaps, we might hazard a guess at the administrative cost of renaming Black Boy Lane as being between £10,000 and £20,000. As my previous post showed, the Council were contemplating paying the affected Tottenham businesses expenses associated with renaming Town Hall Approach. In that case, the additional cost estimate was £21,500. No doubt there are home-based businesses along Black Boy Lane, as well as some street front ones. I suppose we should assume that the Council will treat West Green businesses and residents in the same way as Tottenham ones. So that there will also be compensation costs. What might that cost be? £30,000?
So, with our current state of knowledge, it wouldn't be unreasonable to estimate a total cost of renaming Black Boy Lane at around £50,000
Back this side of the Pond, I've also just come across the Haringey Council report to committee about the abandoned Tottenham Town Hall Approach renaming project. That publication suggests that the matter of costs might be treated quite casually in this borough.
The associated costs for this action are unknown at present but they will be met through the Neighbourhood CIL or Ward Budgets or S106
The full (undated) report is attached as Attachment 1.
In my research, I found an academic paper on the issue of street renaming. Its introduction contains the following.
Urban toponyms act to reify a particular set of political values in the urban landscape and in this way they are instrumental in substantiating the ruling socio-political order and its particular ‘theory of the world’ in the cityscape.
The full paper is attached as Attachment 2.
Given all the foregoing, I should probably restate my view that I fully understand the desire to rename Black Boy Lane and I am not against it, nor am I seeking to undermine it. However, I am keen that the change should be undertaken openly, in full consultation with local people and be guided by local history. With regard to the new name, I have suggested a Jamaican figure from our history with local connections. I sent this to a few local councillors and one has submitted it to the Leader of the Council for consideration.
- Attachments:
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Don’t know I’m afraid. I only ever dealt with ones where a developer wanted a new or changed name and the entire cost fell on them. For a change it can pretty substantial, especially if there are businesses at the address who need to change stationery, website and so on. The cost to the applicant can be far higher than the fee charged by the local authority for doing the administrative work.
It’s worth bearing in mind that amongst the consultees will be fire, police, ambulance and post office. If they don’t find the proposed new name acceptable it doesn’t happen.
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In many Tottenham (Bruce Grove, Tottenham Hale, Seven Sisters.....) residential streets the pavemnets are in an extremely pitiful if not dangerous state through lack of ongoing upkeep over years, and or neglience by our council. Th epublic realm has not benefitted from investments that has happened in teh garden and Green Lanes streets maybe except where Spurs have been forced to contribute to this because of thier ugly flying saucer.
It is obscene to spend this money on changing an Urban toponym "to reify a particular set of political values in the urban landscape and in this way they are instrumental in substantiating the ruling socio-political order and its particular ‘theory of the world’ in the cityscape."
Improve the public realm so that people, a lot of whom are BAME, can feel that they are cared for in their neighbourhoods and feel proud of where they live, instead of the place being branded a s***hole by passers-through and some outsiders. I do not use these words lightly. Where I worlk I have more than one colleague fwo grew up here and ahve moved out and they are always use these words.
I do not agree with the name and find Tottenham to be very rich in its diversity and active community groups. But I have lived here for over 10 years now (only) and when I was more 'community active' before Brexit 'broke my spirit', in every consulation I attended people-residents and local businesses would complain and ask for PHYSICAL IMPROVEMENTS in the public realm.
If our public realm was in good condition I would have no problem with the renaming.
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