please empty your brain below
Temple Mill(s) Lane is another road that has morphed between singular and plural on maps over time.

scrumpy | 21.06.23 - 7:11 a.m. | #

I’m less than half a mile from the first of these as I read your blog but had never noticed this oddly named local spot.

TomH | 21.06.23 - 7:26 a.m. | #

I've been to the Trades Hall a couple of times (usually on a weekend morning for some sort of children's party or similar), and while the smell of cigarettes is thankfully long gone, the decor is indeed wonderfully retro. And thanks for solving the mystery of the name for me, I'd often wondered why it was named after the wrong borough!

martin | 21.06.23 - 7:42 a.m. | #

Thank you for the research! Tower Hamlets road always piqued my annoyance when I walk past it; now I can smugly explain it to people who don't care about it.

Gunnersaurus | 21.06.23 - 7:42 a.m. | #

The name Tower Hamlets is several hundred years old - that's why it was available for the new borough. These roads could have been so named for the "old" TH not the new one.

peter | 21.06.23 - 8:13 a.m. | #

If we are allowed to lop bits off - such as “upon Thames” and indeed “London Borough of” - then lopping off “City of” will no doubt produce a load of “London <foo>” roads too. Ditto Barking, Dagenham, Hammersmith, Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea as single entities.

But two “Tower Hamlets” streets is remarkable.

Andrew | 21.06.23 - 8:22 a.m. | #

Dover has both a Tower Hamlets Road and a Tower Hamlets Street.

Man of Kent | 21.06.23 - 8:33 a.m. | #

I'm pleased to see my birthplace gets a mention today - I was born in Forest Gate Hospital in its maternity hospital days. Interesting to learn of its history.

Alan S | 21.06.23 - 8:34 a.m. | #

I think it's time to start the campaign to get a Barking and Dagenham Road in Chelsea or Westminster.

David | Homepage | 21.06.23 - 8:44 a.m. | #

I've often been amused by the number of place or street names shared by London and Dublin

Ones that come to mind: Sutton, Sutton Station, Croydon Road, Kingston, Clare Hall, Fleet Street

For a further flung Irish placename, an honourable mention goes to TFL route 81, which passes through Longford.

Steve Conway | 21.06.23 - 9:33 a.m. | #

'I suspect still with the whiff of cigarettes embedded in the chair leather' If it's '70s throwback then it should be leather look vinyl.

mclm | 21.06.23 - 10:35 a.m. | #

Harrow Road in Kensal Green area?

cheesebap | 21.06.23 - 11:24 a.m. | #

The English speaking diaspora has taken many UK place names to other parts of the world (so plenty of Richmonds, Kingstons, Westminsters, Surreys, Hertfords, Middlesexes, Kents, a few Londons including "fake" London in Ontario), likely most London boroughs have at least one partial namesake somewhere.

A cursory search hasn't yet revealed any Tower Hamlets though, not even many Hamlets.

But there's a nice ticky list challenge--find all the London borough namesakes

MilesT | 21.06.23 - 11:34 a.m. | #

At least one map I consulted suggests that a short section of Hackney Road (roughly between Gorsuch Place and Scawfell Street) does lie within the London Borough of Hackney.

CJS | 21.06.23 - 11:47 a.m. | #

MilesT - hey, I went to university in the London you called fake. It is a proper London, with a Thames and even Pall Mall! 😉

Greg | 21.06.23 - 12:00 p.m. | #

The City of London has at least one (admittedly lopped off though) - City Road

barbicanman | 21.06.23 - 12:50 p.m. | #

The Trades Hall is a regular home for the wonderful Rock'n'Roll Book Club which as you may guess involves authors talking about music related books.

Matt | 21.06.23 - 7:15 p.m. | #

Often, houses built on Land Society land were individual to each participant's requirement - hence the rather variegated appearance of TH Rd Walthamstow. When I worked nearby in the 70s, THrd was regarded as very run down; not like the £800k norms of today,,

Crispy | 24.06.23 - 1:49 p.m. | #

I ran down Merton Road in Highgate today - leads down to Hampstead Heath. A road I've travelled down many many times but now think about in a different way having read this dg classic.

Simeon Bennett | 26.06.23 - 10:58 p.m. | #

That 'really smart detached gabled villa' is actually a pair of charming but pokey semi-detached cottages, similar to the ones in Eden Road in Walthamstow Village. I know because we used to live in one of them, but moved to a less entrancing but rather more practical house about 25 years ago. I think the estate agent said 'bijou' when we sold it.

We used to get quite a bit of post for the same street number in Tower Hamlets Road E7, and on one occasion a taxi-full of merry partygoers.

Alison Scott | Homepage | 28.06.23 - 10:54 p.m. | #











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