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LOCAL STREETS AND NAMESAKES

Have you ever wondered how the street that you live on had got its name? Perhaps it was named after the person who had built it, or a famous person to have come from that area, or perhaps it was chosen at random. Nottingham can boast several streets names, some linking to Robin Hood, for example - Maid Marian Way, Friar Lane and of course Robin Hood Street.

Of course, Nottingham just like any town or city in the United Kingdom can easily boast a multiple number of High Streets, Main Streets, Station Roads, Park Roads, and many Nottingham Roads within its area and also outside it as well. Emmerdale fans would be pleased to know that Nottingham City Centre has a Woolpack Lane; Top Valley boasts a Holby Close, which as far as I know, is the only street name in the country that has a namesake with the city in which the BBC Television hospital drama series is set in; and Peak Practice fans can be sure that there is also a Cardale Road as well, which is in the constituency. But none of them were named after the programmes or vice versa as far as I know…

Above: A local street map, which has streets called (Edward) Bond, Henry (Cotton) and Harold (Finch-Hatton). Coincidence?

Above: Nearby flats called Morley Court. Could they have been named after Arnold Morley?

Looking around a different part of the constituency on a local street map and I was amazed to see some coincidences between street names and the names of former Nottingham East candidates. I am mostly referring to the part of the constituency around the areas of Sneinton Road, Carlton Road, Walker Street and Windmill Lane. For starters, on Walker Street there is a Morley Court, which could have been named after Nottingham East’s first Member of Parliament, Arnold Morley. There also used to be a primary school in the St Ann’s area called Morley Junior School, which closed in either the 1990s or early 2000s, and could have also been named after the same person. I believe that it wasn’t called the Arnold Morley Junior School because the use of the word “Arnold” would have almost certainly caused confusion with the suburb of the same name a couple of miles away.

Around the corner from Morley Court and along West Street is Bond Street, (with which many people associate with that name with centre of London, along with Oxford Street and Regent Street, although those names are also used in Nottingham on the other side of the City Centre). The question is, could Bond Street have been named after Edward Bond, the first Conservative Member of Parliament for Nottingham East, who had defeated Morley at the 1895 General Election, is the name just a coincidence?

Nearby there is a King Edward Park, which consists of a bowling green, tennis court and a playground (that as a youngster I spent many a 1980s Saturday afternoon there). Of course, the park was not named after Bond, but either King Edward VII, or his grandson King Edward VIII (he of Edward and Mrs Simpson fame), which I believe was the latter. There is also a King Edward Street nearby as well, but that is just off the map.

Going up Walker Street towards Windmill Lane, one turns right into Haywood Street and turning left there is a Henry Street that links Haywood Street and Upper Eldon Street. Streets and the like are more likely to be named after surnames rather than first names, but could this particular Henry Street got its name from Henry Cotton, who happened to be the Member of Parliament from 1906 to 1910? What about the street that links Upper Eldon Street with Windmill Lane - Harold Street? Did Harold Finch-Hatton, who stood three times against Arnold Morley from 1885 to 1892, have a street named after him? After looking at the local street map, it has made me wonder how streets in a small area have the names Morley, Bond, Henry, and Harold, which have also been first names or surnames of early Nottingham East Members of Parliament from the late 19th century and early 20th century. As they say, the mind boggles, but just a little bit too much in this case.

The majority of the streets in this area were built in the 1920s or early 1930s, so it could have been possible, and as no other streets had been named at that point, perhaps Nottingham City Council was keeping them for when the area was finally built? They could have been built before that even. But I believe that the answers to these questions have been permanently buried in the wilderness of time.