Etymology Addiction - Brixton Street Names

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Not a Brixton street name, but......

In my home town there is a street with my (highly unusual) surname.

I have no idea how it was thus named. I seem to remember asking my dad when he was alive, & he didn't know - even though he was an obsessive spod (to quote indirectly from Dhimmi! ) about local history.

I'll be trawling spoddishly through this thread for ideas on where to look.....

What was the name then?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

does glenelg mean any thing or just made up Palindrome

Another Scottish one. That's off Acre Lane isn't it? And then there's Gleneldon Road off Streatham.

 

[teuchter]

does glenelg mean any thing or just made up Palindrome

Glenelg is a place and is famous for being a palindrome as well as being the most fun way to get to/from the Isle of Skye, on this little ferry:

The pub in Glenelg village has a reputation for being a little wild at times.

Glenelg is also known for its Brochs.

 

[Etymologist]

I have a book sitting on my desk called "the streets of london" by S. Fairfield, published in 1983, which is quite good for this sort of stuff. Unfortunately it doesn't have much beyond the centre - so it has Effra, but not Saltoun, Rattray etc. can have a peruse through and see if I find any good ones for brixton

As soon as you mentioned this book I bought it online. It has just arrived and its amazing. True, it doesn't delve deep into the south london back streets but it has most of the main roads. I'm impressed. Its far better than '(Discovering) London Street Names' by John Wittich. Cheers for the tip off.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Bung me a list of names you're interested in...there's an old (1930s iirc) Dictionary of National Biography at work with a fair few volumes. Might turn up something.

 

[lang rabbie]

Arodene has me stumped

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Arodene has me stumped

Maybe the Luftwaffe dropped lots of dogs there during the war?

 

[Etymologist]

Bung me a list of names you're interested in...there's an old (1930s iirc) Dictionary of National Biography at work with a fair few volumes. Might turn up something.

Jelf Road. I've always found that such a funny name (both funny haha and funny weird). If you find anyone named Jelf rememer the road was already there in 1901. Its mentioned in this court case:

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t19010722-579-offence-1&div=t19010722-579#highlight

Um... Mervan, Kellett, Saltoun, Dalberg, Probert, Talma, Baytree, Sudbourne, Hayter, Winslade... I could go on forever. Any Brixton Road.

I don't know how useful it will be looking them up though. As a few people have pointed out, the victorian developers didn't always do too much thinking about the name, perhaps some of them just wanted to make it sound nice and sell some houses. In the book that someone reccomended above, The streets of london (Sheila Fairfield), the introduction talks about the many victorian suburban street names that wer chosen without too much thought and so are not interesting on a local history level. Alothough my primary motivation is local history, I'm still interested to hear who/what/where the developer might have been thinking of when they named a road.

Arodene has me stumped

Perhaps it was the developers favourite breed of dog.

 

[quimcunx]

Perhaps it was the developers favourite breed of dog.

Maybe.

Maybe the Luftwaffe dropped lots of dogs there during the war?

but I like this story better.



(((((WWII era arodene dogs))))

 

[Etymologist]

But Arodene Road is probably prewar no? I'm just guessing wildly there. I like the dog story too.

I wonder who it was that got to chose the writers who give their names to the close's off shakespeare road:

Derek Walcott, Louise Bennett, Alice Walker, Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, and Pablo Neruda.

Cordelia Close on the other side is a nice shakespearian touch. And I think I saw the developers advertising hoarding say that the new close (currently being built) is going to be called Poets Mews* or something. I may have mis-remembered that. The new Close is question is here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&h...496&spn=0.002433,0.004678&t=h&z=18&iwloc=addr

*That new book I've bought (at the suggestion of another urban-forumite and keep going on about) explains that 'mews' originally meant somewhere where hawks were kept (before it became where horses were kept).

 

[boohoo]

In Stockwell, Paradise Street is named after the fields that were there. Bedford Road after the Duke who owned the land. Larkhall for the name of the building hall that was there. However can't find where the name Babilon (which there is no evidence in the street names) comes from. It's the area around Clapham north and is marked on the old maps - it's the Duke of Bedford's land.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

but I like this story better.



(((((WWII era arodene dogs))))

That's where the term "dogs of war" comes from.

 

[detective-boy]

Always worth looking at old maps (at various stages of development), looking for names of farms, big houses, woods, streams, etc. - I have found quite a few of them built into modern names, or at least giving a bit of a clue. Sometimes they have been bastardised (e.g. Paddenswick Road in Hammersmith seems to come from Palingswick (or something, I haven't got it in front of me) which was associated with the area when it was fields.

It is fascinating though - especially when there is some totally random explanation (e.g. there are roads called Manoel Road, Portugal Gardens and Lisbon Avenue near me - it turns out there was some exiled King Manoel of Portugal who was relocated to some big house which used to be there).

 

[ringo]

Some bits and pieces about Loughborough Junction - named after Loughborough House, a mansion which was situated roughly where the former Loughborough Hotel stands. The region was known more as Cold Harbour before the railway junction was built.

Denmark Hill - said to have acquired its name from Queen Anne‘s husband, Prince George of Denmark, who hunted there in the 17th Century.

There is also Denmark Road and the Thorlands (eg Thor's Land) Estate on Flaxman Road where I live has blocks called Baltic House, Bergen House, Dane House, Elsinore House, Jutland House, Mercia House, Narvic House, Nobel House, Nobel House, Norse House, Odin House, Oslo House, Viking House and Zealand House.

Flaxman Road - Possibly after John Flaxman (6 July 1755 - 7 December 1826), an English sculptor and draughtsman?

Carew Street - Possibly John Carew (1622-1660), a Cornish MP who was hanged, drawn and quartered for trying to kill King Charles 1? Not sure if planners could get away with that though, might count as sedition or somesuch.

 

[lang rabbie]

But Arodene Road is probably prewar no? I'm just guessing wildly there. I like the dog story too.

The road was laid out in 1891.

The fundamental influence upon the development of this neighbourhood was the Inclosure Act of 1806 which protected Rush Common. Following the passing of this Act, the development of the area can be divided into four distinct phases:
(a) the construction of townhouses for wealthy inhabitants in a linear form along the two main roads, set back from the common, in the early 1800's (which have virtually all been demolished) .
(b) the building of a few streets of artisan housing in the 1850's, such as Archbishop's Place (begun in the early 1850's) - perhaps partly to serve the wealthier carriage-owning residents, terraces of slightly grander houses along Elm Park and Upper Tulse Hill and the construction of the magnificent early Victorian Christ Church;
(c) the rapid development of attractive Victorian terraced housing (e.g. Ostade Road and Craster Road in 1876, Endymion Road in 1881, Beechdale Road in 1891 and Arodene Road in 1891) for the artisan and middle classes and the erection of elegant late Victorian shopping parades and public houses (particularly on Brixton Hill) following the arrival of the railways in the mid 1860's and the introduction of trams between Brixton and Westminster Bridge in 1870. These improvements in transport allowed better paid clerks and other workers employed in Central London to move into the suburbs. ...
(d) the contribution to the character of the neighbourhood by a number of prominent developments in the first half of the Twentieth Century [mostly the mansion blocks rather than street - LR]

I wonder who it was that got to chose the writers who give their names to the close's off shakespeare road:

Derek Walcott, Louise Bennett, Alice Walker, Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, and Pablo Neruda.

I can just imagine the thinking needed to get the two white males onto the list past the cultural commissars of Lambeth in the 1980s- presumably Whitman was claimed for "queer poetry" and Neruda because his funeral turned into the first anti-Pincochet protest after the overthrow of Allende.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I know that Coldharbour lane was originally Cool Arbour Lane because I found an 18th century reference to it in a book of natural history (referring to the Camberwell beauty butterfly iirc)

 

[Structaural]

Actually I should have said RNA which is shaped like a helix or spiral. DNA is a double helix.

It could be a reference to snails: Helix aspersa.

 

[Structaural]

I know that Coldharbour lane was originally Cool Arbour Lane because I found an 18th century reference to it in a book of natural history (referring to the Camberwell beauty butterfly iirc)

 

[Mrs Magpie]

It could be a reference to snails: Helix aspersa.

Or Ivy, Hedera helix.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I believe the blocks on the New Loughborough Estate are named after dissenting bishops of the 1700s eg Bishop Secker.

 

[Etymologist]

It could be a reference to snails: Helix aspersa.

I already mentioned the snail.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Jelf Road. I've always found that such a funny name (both funny haha and funny weird). If you find anyone named Jelf rememer the road was already there in 1901.

Jelf is actually reasonably easy. I have a recent Concise Dictionary of National Biography at home. Only three volumes but the Jelfs are in there. All related. Two brothers; Richard 1798-1871, and William 1811-1875 and George 1834-1908, son of Richard. All scholars and churchmen. Richard was principal of King's College London, amongst many other things so he seems to be the most likely. He appears the most distinguished of the three. He also had a lot of influence through his popular devotional publications and tracts.

 

[Structaural]

I already mentioned the snail.

Oh.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

whatman

Famous paper manufacturer. Not in any dictionary but it's still sold for watercolourists to use. One type is called Whatman Not, which means it's not hot-pressed. Hot-pressed paper has a smoother surface.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

....and Appach is a surname....

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gsfn=Sybil+Mary&gsln=Appach&db=uki1901&gss=seo&hc=20

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Oh, and any reference to Minet are the philanthropic Huguenot family of the area. Buildings they paid for always have a cat on them. There are plenty around Myatt's Field Park.There are some mansion flats with stone cats on the roof. There's still a charitable local trust set up by the Minet family.


eta
just seen your post about the Minet family, Etymologist
Still, I did manage to add some extra info.

 

[poster342002]

What the hell is Robsart Street all about, then?

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Lady Amye Dudley who was believed to have been murdered in 1560 by her husband Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester was Amye Robsart till she married him. Robert Dudley was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth 1st. I have no idea if there's a connection though.

 

[nick h.]

I'm in Dalberg Rd and have been distressed to discover that the only big shot Dalberg around at the time the house was built was a British aristo who added the name as a double-barrelled bit because daddy married some Kraut Countess. For fuck's sake, it's as bad as being in Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Windsor Avenue.

Burn them, burn them.

 

[poster342002]

Lady Amye Dudley who was believed to have been murdered in 1560 by her husband Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester was Amye Robsart till she married him. Robert Dudley was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth 1st. I have no idea if there's a connection though.

Interesting.