please empty your brain below

I am (or was, noting the LTN) an occasional user of La Rose Lane as a useful route to avoid Green Lanes and have always thought the name was an anachronism and should be changed. I'm glad they have done it.

And thanks for the heads-up on the LTN, I wasn't aware of that one.
I attended Woodlands Park School (now Chestnuts) in the early 1960s. We were always taught that the Black Boy was actually a horse.

I think there are other examples around the country of lanes being named after horses.
There are quite a lot of pubs called Black Boy and they are named for Charles the Second. It was his mother, Henrietta Marie of France who is said to have nicknamed him that, as he had dark eyes and hair.
There is a very good pub of this name in Bridgnorth.
I admire your determination (or innate ability) not to seethe. I can't help feeling that those who seethe about changes like this are doing little but harming their own blood pressure and peace of mind.
I feel a bit sorry for those living on the lane who didn't have a problem with the name but are having to put up with the associated inconvenience. One would hope that they would, nevertheless, recognise that it might have been uncomfortable (at least) for a good number of their fellow citizens and the name change is a small price to pay for a more harmonious world. (You can probably tell that I've chosen not to dip into the online discussion.)

Of course, a real benefit that homeowners on the street may find is that their properties go up in value with it having a less undesireable name. Those paying rent may be less happy, I suppose.
Residents didn't want the change but they went ahead anyway, that's democracy for you.
I deactivated my Twitter when that man bought it (and haven't regretted it once).

When I clicked on the Twitter link here to view Haringey Council's tweet as a person without Twitter, I got a number of suggested tweets to view.

The first was a JK Rowling anti-trans screed, the second an Elon Musk stan, then two tweets asking me if I remembered beef stew and dumplings and Betamax's, a rant about trans women in sport and a man saying that all "foreigners" should only be allowed into the UK if they have private health insurance.

I feel that accurately sums up the (lack of) quality in online debate.
This name change has obviously come about so as not to upset anybody yet it seems its ok to actually upset a majority of residents in doing so.
When the Homebase in Loughton closed and was replaced by a Lidl, the bus stops outside were renamed from "Homebase" to "Sedley Rise". The LED screens on the 20 were changed immediately but for around a year instead of still saying "Homebase" there was no announcement at all as you approached the stop.

The 20 also had an issue with announcements at Whipps Cross when the layout of the area changed, the LED screen and announcement would say "Stratford Bus Station" for a few months.
"Those in favour are conspicuous by their general absence."

The crux of the issue a lot of the time. Most people aren't offended by this sort of thing, and the people who are get so worked up about it that no sane person would dare discuss it with them. You see this in most Outer London social media with the ULEZ. It doesn't affect 90% of people, so they are either indifferent or in favour. But the ones it does affect are so loud and frothy, that there is no chance of a reasonable discussion being had.
That should be "The People who change signs".
Seeing as no one can conclusively prove the provenance of the name, it seems to me that those people getting worked up about keeping the name that some people find offensive are probably the sort of people who bemoan that you can't use the N-word any more
My childhood home was nearby, and as a youngster I clearly remember the pub sign featuring a cartoon "cannibal" character, complete with grass skirt, spear and a bone through it's nose. By the time I got my first full-time job, and waited each morning for the 41 bus opposite, the sign had become a black horse. Whatever the sign, it was a notoriously "lively" pub.
I expect that Whiteladies Road in Bristol will be the next candidate in the ever growing list of historic places and events being erased because of a few complaints, we should learn from history not erase it as if it never existed.
I suppose they could have changed the street name to 'Black Buoy Lane' instead.
I fear for Whiteparish in Wilts.
Charlie - I can remember when the Homebase in Loughton was still a Texas Homecare (early 90s?), though I think that was probably before the days of properly naming/announcing bus stops!
Whiteladies Road, of course, becomes Blackboy Hill as it meets Clifton Downs.
As a local resident, I followed the BBL debate closely. While you’re right about the frothing opponents, there were still several very disconcerting elements: the council just chose two potential new names but gave no option for any others commemorating other Haringey communities (Greek, Turkish, Irish, etc); street residents overwhelmingly didn’t want the change; the intellectual basis for it is, as you say, unestablished; LB Haringey estimates a cost of around £200,000+ for the change, money that many people think a cash-starved council should spend instead on schools, social services, housing, homelessness help or other ways of ameliorating current hardship. When Camden tried a similar thing with Cecil Rhodes House (a block of flats), residents entirely rejected the council’s suggested names and went for the neutral, if aspirational, Park View House. In Harringay, “Chestnuts Lane” — a logical choice — for example, was never allowed a look in.
Is this where I say political correctness gone mad? What does the local black population think? Ah, the area is too expensive for them to live in. Say no more.
It would be interesting to know what the now-closed Black Boy pub was re-named to, and whether that name could have been a contendor for re-naming the lane also. A few years ago I came across an entire Sussex village called "Blackboys", and wonder if it too is under threat.
Re Andrew’s point, allegedly the plan was devised by the now-outgone (and disgraced) former council leader as his political legacy, not from any more general PC “madness”.
From a PRACTICAL point of view there are sensible reasons for all those "Black Boy Lane" signs being hung along the road, as many non residents unaware of the change will be turning up expecting to find Black Boy Lane.

After all many people will be using out of date mapping (whether electronic or physical).
We had our post code changed a good few years ago. Our area was spilt into two, and we gained an additional digit in the first half of the code.
We were assured that "doctors, delivery companies, employers, insurers, mortgage companies and the DVLA" would pick up on this automatically. In practice I don't think any of them did. The residents can look forward to years of "yes, but our address was changed in 2023 and we really are still us".
Well as of this morning royalmail.com/find-a-postcode can find Black Boy Lane N15 but not La Rose Lane N15. Not a good start for something in planning for a while.

Royal Mail sell their postcode data for various purposes but the data set is notoriously slow to be updated and has errors. Some solution providers do their own updates and corrections, but most don't.
Greene King recently renamed a pub in Linlithgow from The Black Bitch to the Willow Tree, despite local opposition - it was named after a female greyhound. I guess 'not actually racist but sounds like it could be' is a bit of a nuanced area.
Google Maps still hasn't made a change - I foresee some confusion in the near future as a result of this virtue signalling.
The pub became the Black Grape as the link reveals.
Ah, ok - thanks, ap.
The name change causes me zero emotional distress. But sight of that LTZ triggers a bad case of P(Traffic)SD. I'm hugely pro traffic regulation, but maps and streetviews not keeping abreast resulted in some nasty surprises and seeing an awful lot more of the neighbourhood than expected, often in reverse, including this lane. An unplanned visit to the adjacent Station Crescent tipped me about West Green Station, which I'd never have suspected otherwise.
There is (or maybe was, who knows what might have happened while I wasn't looking) a village in Sussex called Blackboys, supposedly after charcoal burners.
Are people campaigning to reinstate the previous name of Oxford's Magpie Lane because it's otherwise "PC gone mad"? Oh...

Regardless of the name's origin, changing it seems relatively harmless and is upsetting all the right people.
Interesting detailed and well researched article as we expect from you. It would be appropriate for Haringey to erect a nameplate adjacent to the old Black Boy pub.

La Rose Road - formerly named Black Boy Lane, which commemorated an Inn/ Tavern adjacent to this site. It is uncertain of the derivation of ‘ The Black Boy’ but research suggests that it was either named after a particular fine stallion with a shiny black coat or the nickname of Charles 11 (born…) who had a swarthy complexion and dark hair and eyes. La Rose commemorates ….a member of the local West Indian community. Which some people felt to be more politically correct in 2022
While you weren't looking, Sarah, the village of Blackboys was mentioned a few hours ago.
They've unveiled the new street signs today...
[BBC News story]

...and they all say...

LA ROSE LANE
(Formerly Black Boy Lane) N15

...so not as angerworthy as many feared.
I suppose anyone offended by the switch could move to Caernarfon on the Welsh coast… where the Black Boy Inn is still so-named and proudly displays a signboard explaining that the provenance is indeed a black boy, who was found on a boat arriving in the town.

Low traffic zones are a fantastic idea in residential areas. Those annoyed could always get a bus like everyone else… then the need for them would go away too.
The day will come when someone will take offence that La Rose is seen as a female genered term and hence offencive to those who don't identify as female. About 50% of the population don't idetify as female, of course, but that won't stock some humas that don't identify as male or female from stirring the sh1t
It's utter bollocks like that which gives the Virtue Signalling Spotters a bad name.
Are the new signs intended to be temporary, then, until everyone gets used to the new name? Otherwise, the old name will still be on display.
I tend to avoid the parts of social media that attract those given to parading polarised opinions. However, I've often wondered whether it's entirely coincidental that those given to anachronistic, unpleasant and even 'offencive' beliefs often can't spell.
There is a Blackberrylane in West Hampstead. Lots of White Hart this and that. Let s get to work.
I'm glad the street signs still reference the old name, as it'll take AGES for everything to be updated.
Black Boy Lane strikes me as a silly name. As such, I’m glad it’s gone.
It seems particularly offensive to tell black boys that they are considered officially offensive.
Didn't last long :o(
[The Guardian]










TridentScan | Privacy Policy