February 13, 2020 - 7:00am
Should we name the new railway station on the HS2 line after Baroness Thatcher, the beloved former leader of our country? Boris Johnson apparently called it a “brilliant idea”, but I wonder if the whole idea is just too un-English?
The French love properly honouring people. Every French village contains about five or six streets named after artists, philosophers or politicians, whether foreign, national or local people of interest.
In London, for some bizarre reason, the only streets fully named after people commemorate obscure local councillors, whereas there are virtually no streets or avenues commemorating any of the great leaders or poets or scientists of our age (the exceptions are the great 18th and 19th squares, but even these tend to commemorate families, not individuals).
Meanwhile we have countless dull, generic street names that are repeated ad nauseam across the country.
In Paris dozens of underground stations are in honour of individuals, while I can’t think of a single Tube station named after someone, with the exception of Queen Victoria and, indirectly, Ss Paul, John and James (I suppose some others were ultimately medieval villages named commemorating 8th century Middle Saxon chieftain, but I’m not sure that really counts).
TfL recently asked the public to name the new stations along the Old Kent Road, and while it would be nice if they named one Geoffrey Chaucer, they’ll probably call them things like Peckham South or name it after some obscure side street.
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