Street name changes 1857-1929

When you see how many places were named Church, John, Edward or Charles etc., it is very clear why the Post Office was so keen that this exercise took place. Unfortunately some historical connections were lost and it is a great shame that no one now lives in "Jolly Gardeners' Yard" or "Loving Edward's Lane" but, through rain or sleet or dark of night, the mail must get through.

This list is taken from the "Names of Streets and Places in the Administrative County of London", first published by the London County Council in 1901 and compiled by the Superintending Architect of the Council. A revised edition was published in 1912 with a third in 1929 and a fourth, final, edition in 1955. Supplements were issued between editions, with updates.

The section of the book used is called "Abolished Street Names" where they are recorded as Former Name, Current Name and Parish. The date shown is calculated based on the edition in which the change is first recorded. The exact year is given in the eBook version of the lists.

The Old to New list is also sorted New to Old. Both contain 6,028 places on one large page. They may take a short while to load but splitting them into smaller units would make searching too complicated.

I have expanded some abbreviations for clarity and slightly changed the alphabetical order. By building the list in a spreadsheet I am at the mercy of its rules on sorting and these occasionally differ from the original which grouped some changes by Parish.

The book was first published before Postal District numbering was introduced (in 1917) and assumes you know that the Parish of St. George the Martyr refers to the one in Finsbury and not the one in Southwark. Unhelpfully, it does not distinguish between individual Parishes and the amalgamated ones brought about by the London Government Act of 1899 and subsequent Acts. The amalgamated Parishes approximately coincide with the 28 Metropolitan Boroughs (plus the City of London) but to narrow the locations down I have produced this list of all the places mentioned and added Postal Districts.

For further help with finding Postal District Numbers and Area Names see this page.

For earlier street names see Lockie's Topography of London from 1810.

I had read about this and thought it might be an urban myth but it is true. So strong was the anti-German sentiment after the first world war that between 1918 and 1920 every street in London with a Germanic name was changed. These are the names expunged. Berlin, Bismarc, Blucher, Brandenburgh, Bremen, Dantzic, Gotha, Hamburg, Hamburgh, Hanover, Herman, Leipsic, Vienna and Wirtemberg.

Whilst I was turning these lists into an eBook I discovered that one was missed; Weimar Street in Wandsworth, just south of Putney Bridge. Prior to 1891 it had been called Albert Place.