The idea of nomative determination – where someone’s name determines their fate to some extent – is not new, with examples like Danone UK’s boss Bruno Fromage. However, it appears that this trend extends to roads and streets as well as people. Here are a few of my favourites.
1. There’s an old joke that goes “Where does a policeman live? 999 Letsby Avenue”. South Yorkshire Police obviously had that in mind when their Operations Complex in Sheffield was located in Letsby Avenue. On this occasion, the road name was made to fit its purpose.
2. When I pointed out Letsby Avenue, one of my colleagues told me that the Seagate factory in Londonderry, where computer storage is manufactured, was located on Disc Drive…
Seagate Technology, Londonderry is based on… Disc Drive.
A photo posted by Mark Haggan (@markhaggan) on
3. The emergency services are frequently encouraging us to be careful, and Dorset Fire & Rescue in Poole have certainly taken heed of that as they are on a Safety Drive…
4. If you find yourself in St George’s hospital in Tooting, then to get to Recovery Street, you need to take a trip down Effort Street.
5. One for the techies out there. Olympus Surgical Technologies in St Mellons is located on Fortran Road, just off Pascal Close. (Fortran and Pascal are computer programming languages, for those who are not familiar with them).
6. Tollcross International Swimming Centre in Glasgow hosted some of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. How do you get there? Trainard Avenue…
7. The library in the London borough of Hackney is, of course, on Reading Lane.
No doubt there are other examples out there, do let me know if you see some similarly apt street names.
