Street name changes 1929-1945

Street name changes 1929-1945

I have now found 2,683 changes that took place during this period. The inspiration for this (with the kind permission of his son, Roy) was the list compiled by Fred Rayment, as used by the London Fire service in the 1940's.

As of October 2013 the list comes entirely from the 1955 (final) edition of 'Names of Streets and Places in the Administrative County of London', issued by the London County Council. These mostly took place between 1st January 1936 and 1st July 1939. All of them took place after 1st August 1929, none of the new names appearing in the index of my digitised map, published in 1922 and updated to 1929. Only 65 were made during WW2.

The list is sorted Old to New and New to Old

A supplement was issued in 1967 by the Greater London Council, (G.L.C.) including subsidiary names and small roads of no interest to map makers with 120 changes made between 1946 and 1966. All these are included in the eBook version, along with the exact date of each change.

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

All of the changes listed previously are still here,
but for a list of corrections made in September 2013 see below.

In October 1939 the Metropolitan Police took delivery of 2,000 copies of the 4th edition of the Authentic Map Directory of London and Suburbs. No doubt they were ordered on the outbreak of war for distribution amongst the 160 Metropolitan Police Stations and their other 740 offices. This is a large-scale, library atlas with a comprehensive index and one copy was very kindly lent to me by Richard Farmery MBE LL.M, the Senior Facilities Manager of the Metropolitan Police Service.

First published in 1936 it had two supplements pasted onto the back cover (my own copy does not have these). The first is 'with changes to October 1937' the other is a 'Complete list of L.C.C. Street Name Changes (Second Edition) . . . from January, 1936, up to and including 1st January, 1939, with a large number of other alterations which will come into operation on 1st July, 1939.' All these changes are shown in my lists.

This copy saw extensive use and both the index and the maps have been painstakingly updated from the supplements in a very small, neat hand using red ink. All the Police Stations have been highlighted in blue or red crayon and there are a number of other, unfortunately undecipherable, marks and annotations. A number of post-war L.C.C. developments and new roads have been pencilled in. A fascinating piece of history.

Corrections and amendments made to the 1929-1945 list in September 2013.
Gratifyingly few mistakes, if any, appear to be mine.

Brand Street in Islington N7 did not become Rollit Street - Entry deleted.
Cambridge Place (part) in Woolwich SE18 did not become Review Place - Entry deleted.
Church Street in Marylebone NW8 did not become Lilestone Street - Entry deleted.
Cleveland Square (not Street) in Westminster W1 became Cleveland Row - Entry amended.
Cross Street in Holborn EC1 became part of St. Cross Street, not the other way round - Wrong entry deleted.
East Chapel Street in Westminster W1 became part of Trebeck Street, not the other way round - Wrong entry deleted.
Eton Stables (became Eton Garages) in Hampstead NW3 misspelt as Eaton - Entry amended.
Eton Road (became Vincent Street) in Woolwich SE18 misspelt as Eaton - Wrong, duplicate, entry deleted.
Gordon Road in Stoke Newington N16 became Beatty Road (not Street) - Entry amended.
Great Guildford Street in Southwark SE1 did not become Guildford Street and Guildford Street did not become Great Guildford Street - Both entries deleted. Such circular references may be a mistake, a joke or an anti-plagiarism marker.
Green Lane in Eltham SE9 did not become Chislehurst Lane - Entry deleted.
Harley Mews South (not Harley Mews) in St. Marylebone SW1 became Wigmore Place - Entry amended.
High Street, Mottingham (part) in Woolwich SE9 should read High Road - Entry amended.
High Street, Shadwell (part) in E1 did not become Broad Street or St. George Street- Entries deleted.
Hope Cottages in Hackney E8 did not become Dun's Place, Dunn's Cottages became part of Dunn's Place - Entry amended.
Layton Road in Islington N1 did not become Liverpool Street, it was the other way round - Wrong entry deleted.
Little [and Great] White Lion Street (became part of Mercer Street) in Westminster & Holborn WC2 also listed incorrectly as Little [and Great] Lion Street - Both wrong entries deleted.
Middle Street in Hackney E8 became Dunn's (not Dunns) Place - Entry amended.
Middleton Grove in Islington N7 misspelled as Midleton - Entry amended.
Mount Adon Lodge in Camberwell SE2 misrecorded as Mount Adon Lane - Entry amended.
Mountearl Road in Wandsworth SW16 did not become Mountearl Gardens - Entry deleted.
Mount Pleasant in Shoreditch N1 became Silbury (not Selbury) Street - Entry amended.
Rigault Road in Fulham SW6 misspelt once as Regault Road - Entry amended.
Sidney Street in Hackney E9 became Kenworthy Road (not Street) - Entry amended.
Sutherland Row in Westminster SW1 misspelled as Surtherland - Entry amended.
Upper Rupert Street in Westminster W1 became Winnett street, not part of Wardour Street - Entry amended.
Walham Green Arcade in Fulham SW6 misspelled as Waltham - Entry amended.

As a finale I would like to raise my glass (virtually) to the clerks in the "Office of the Superintending Architect of the Metropolitan Buildings and Architect to the (London County) Council under the direction of the General Purposes Committee," - who actually did this work, and carried it out with quiet diligence and a high degree of accuracy. Cheers boys, thank you, whoever you were - assuming, in those days, you were probably all chaps!

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