A city’s street names can give us a glimpse into its cultural value system. Ever since streets have been named, they have been used as a form of social engineering, and various studies have been done about ‘streetonomics’.
A Washington journal has conducted a study on 4,932 honorific streets (i.e. named for a person), looking at gender bias, professions etc. Vienna had the highest proportion of streets named for women, at 54%, with London a close second. Paris scored abysmally in this area, with only 4%.
I personally think that naming streets after authors or even after their characters is a wonderful idea, and something to be encouraged. In London you can find a Macbeth Street, Prospero Road, Portia Way, Crusoe Mews, Poppins Court, Copperfield Street, Sherlock Mews and Baskerville Gardens, and Batman Close, as some of the streets honouring fictional creations, but it also has plenty commemorating actual authors – Shakespeare Road, Dickens Street. San Francisco has Jack Kerouac Alley, Dashiell Hammett Street; Paris has Quai Anatole France, Boulevard Voltaire, Avenue Victor Hugo, and Rue Balzac.
So how does Australia compare? Well, there’s a Fullerton Street in Sydney, but sadly it was NOT named after me. Canberra has chosen literary names for most of the 51 streets in the suburb of Garran – Astley Place, Praed Place, Gilmore Crescent, Harpur Street, Wright Place and Richardson Street are some of them. In Melbourne’s St Kilda / Elwood area there are streets named for English poets – Tennyson, Chaucer, Wordsworth, Shelley, Byron, Southey and Shakespeare amongst them.
Street names are a part of our wider literary culture. The more we remember writers, celebrate their legacy in our physical environment, and make the next generation aware of their names and books, the better! Do you agree? Let me know leaving a comment.
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Miland Joshi
Sadly, I can’t think of many major roads in the UK named after writers or their characters, though you might thought there would be plenty. No doubt that’s because I haven’t searched for them. However near my house there’s a short road Huddleston Way, that leads into what used to be a theological college, now another institute plus some housing development. Huddleston did write books, including Naught for your comfort.
Susannah Fullerton
I have never heard of Huddleston, so will look him up.
There are a lot of roads named for writers or fictional characters in the UK, but you do have to make an effort to seek them out.
Margaret Clingan Wright
Hi Susannah,
I belong to Molonglo ADFAS, and I see with great pleasure that you will be giving a lecture on the Mitford sisters in Queanbeyan’s Bicentennial Hall next year. I can’t wait.. I do enjoy reading and hearing about those girls, and of course, their wonderfully eccentric Farve and Muv. Each member of the family is worth a book! And Chatsworth is a delight to visit.
I look forward very much to your lecture.
Best wishes,
Margaret.
Susannah Fullerton
It is always good to hear from another Mitford fan. They were certainly fascainting sisters and also wonderful writers.
I too am looking forward to my ADFAS visit – it will be so good to have live talks again.
Margaret Clingan Wright
Yes indeed. You will enjoy being back to it again.
Best wishes.
Wendy Gray
Street names in Ambervale, a suburb near Campbelltown in Sydney. Some of the ones that don’t have a Dickens flavour are the main through roads.
Agrippa Street 2560
Appin Road 2560
Augustus Way 2560
Balook Crescent 2560
Barnaby Place 2560
Bates Way 2560
Betsey Way 2560
Biddy Place 2560
Billikin Way 2560
Boffin Place 2560
Boythorn Avenue 2560
Boz Place 2560
Bray Place 2560
Brownlow Place 2560
Camilla Way 2560
Carstone Way 2560
Casby Place 2560
Central Road 2560
Cheeryble Place 2560
Clarissa Place 2560
Claudius Place 2560
Claypole Street 2560
Cleaver Place 2560
Clennam Avenue 2560
Cleopatra Drive 2560
Clerkenwell Street 2560
Cobb Place 2560
Codlin Street 2560
Copperfield Drive 2560
Crispsparkle Drive 2560
Curzon Way 2560
Darnay Place 2560
Dartle Way 2560
Dawkins Place 2560
Defarge Way 2560
Demetrius Road 2560
Dickens Road 2560
Dolge Place 2560
Dombey Place 2560
Dorrit Way 2560
Drood Place 2560
Durden Place 2560
Emma Place 2560
Englorie Park Drive 2560
Estella Place 2560
Gadshill Place 2560
Gargery Street 2560
Garland Way 2560
Gaspard Place 2560
Georgiana Crescent 2560
Gride Place 2560
Grimwig Crescent 2560
Hannam Place 2560
Haredale Street 2560
Harthouse Road 2560
Havisham Way 2560
Holborn Street 2560
Jaggers Place 2560
Jarley Place 2560
Jarndyce Avenue 2560
Jasper Place 2560
Jiniwin Place 2560
Jinkins Place 2560
Kenge Place 2560
Lavinia Place 2560
Lightwood Street 2560
Lillyvicks Crescent 2560
Littimer Way 2560
Macbeth Way 2560
Manette Place 2560
Mantalini Street 2560
Marley Street 2560
Martha Way 2560
Maylie Close 2560
Merdle Place 2560
Micawber Street 2560
Miggs Place 2560
Milvay Place 2560
Nancy Place 2560
Nell Place 2560
Nickleby Way 2560
Orlando Street 2560
Orlick Street 2560
Parkholme Circuit 2560
Peggotty Avenue 2560
Pegler Way 2560
Pickwick Way 2560
Pocket Close 2560
Pross Court 2560
Quilp Place 2560
Quinion Place 2560
Romilly Place 2560
Rudge Place 2560
Sikes Place 2560
Silas Way 2560
Smike Place 2560
Squeers Place 2560
St Johns Road 2560
Stagg Place 2560
Startop Place 2560
Steerforth Way 2560
Stephano Place 2560
Summerstone Way 2560
Swiveller Close 2560
Tapley Way 2560
Therry Road 2560
Throsby Way 2560
Tigg Place 2560
Tipping Place 2560
Tisher Place 2560
Tope Place 2560
Trabb Place 2560
Tremlow Crescent 2560
Trent Place 2560
Trotwood Avenue 2560
Twingleton Avenue 2560
Uriah Place 2560
Varden Way 2560
Wegg Place 2560
Whitechapel Close 2560
Wickfield Circuit 2560
Willett Place 2560
Woodcourt Street 2560
Woodhouse Drive 2560
Woodland Road 2560
Street names in Rosemeadow, an adjoining suburb:
Agrippa Street 2560
Alexis Place 2560
Alonso Close 2560
Anthony Drive 2560
Antonio Close 2560
Appin Road 2560
Archibald Crescent 2560
Ariel Place 2560
Balthasar Close 2560
Banquo Place 2560
Bardolph Avenue 2560
Benvolio Road 2560
Bernardo Street 2560
Bianca Place 2560
Blunt Place 2560
Brutus Way 2560
Caliban Place 2560
Calpurnia Way 2560
Canidius Street 2560
Capulet Place 2560
Cassius Way 2560
Cawdor Place 2560
Ceres Place 2560
Charmian Place 2560
Cicero Way 2560
Claudius Place 2560
Cleopatra Drive 2560
Colevile Place 2560
Copperfield Drive 2560
Cordelia Street 2560
Crispsparkle Drive 2560
Cymbeline Street 2560
Darnay Place 2560
Demetrius Road 2560
Desdemona Street 2560
Donalbain Circuit 2560
Dorcas Place 2560
Edmund Place 2560
Emilia Close 2560
Englorie Park Drive 2560
Eros Place 2560
Fabian Place 2560
Falstaff Place 2560
Ferdinand Place 2560
Fitzgibbon Lane 2560
Fitzwater Way 2560
Flavius Street 2560
Fortinbras Close 2560
Francisco Crescent 2560
Gadshill Place 2560
Gallus Place 2560
Glendower Street 2560
Gonzalo Street 2560
Greco Place 2560
Gregory Street 2560
Hamlet Crescent 2560
Haredale Street 2560
Horatio Street 2560
Hotspur Place 2560
Iago Place 2560
Iras Place 2560
Jessica Place 2560
Jubilee Circuit 2560
Juliet Close 2560
Julius Road 2560
Kellerman Drive 2560
Lear Place 2560
Leontes Close 2560
Lorenzo Crescent 2560
Lucius Place 2560
Lysander Avenue 2560
Macbeth Way 2560
Macduff Way 2560
Mackillop Crescent 2560
Malcolm Way 2560
Malvolio Street 2560
Marcellus Place 2560
Marian Drive 2560
Menus Place 2560
Mercutio Place 2560
Miranda Place 2560
Montague Place 2560
Mowbray Way 2560
Octavia Avenue 2560
Olivia Close 2560
Ophelia Street 2560
Orlando Street 2560
Orsino Place 2560
Oswald Crescent 2560
Othello Avenue 2560
Philo Close 2560
Pindarus Way 2560
Polonius Street 2560
Portia Close 2560
Prospero Close 2560
Pyramus Circuit 2560
Regan Street 2560
Reynaldo Place 2560
Roderigo Close 2560
Romeo Crescent 2560
Romilly Place 2560
Sampson Place 2560
Scarus Place 2560
Sebastian Avenue 2560
Seyton Place 2560
Siward Place 2560
Soliano Street 2560
Stephano Place 2560
Tamora Street 2560
Taurus Place 2560
Thane Close 2560
Theseus Circuit 2560
Thisbe Place 2560
Thomas Rose Drive 2560
Titania Place 2560
Valentine Place 2560
Vaucluse Place 2560
Vernon Close 2560
Viola Place 2560
Westminster Way 2560
Susannah Fullerton
Wow, what amazing lists. Thanks so much! I must admit I am glad I don’t live in Uriah Place.
Margaret Clingan Wright
Hi Susannah,
I belong to Molonglo ADFAS, and I see with great pleasure that you will be giving a lecture on the Mitford sisters in Queanbeyan’s Bicentennial Hall next year. I can’t wait.. I do enjoy reading and hearing about those girls, and of course, their wonderfully eccentric Farve and Muv. Each member of the family is worth a book! And Chatsworth is a delight to visit.
I look forward very much to your lecture.
Best wishes,
Margaret.
Sharon Herbitter
I live just outside of Montgomery, Alabama. One of the main streets in town is Zelda Road, named for Zelda Fitzgerald who was living here when she and F. Scott Fitzgerald met and fell in love. There is a Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum here — not on Zelda Road, sadly — in one of the houses they lived in (he was writing Tender Is the Night and she worked on Save Me the Waltz while living there). You can even spend the night in the house.
Susannah Fullerton
Oh how nice to hear from you, Sharon. I have visited your gorgeous town of Montgomery 3 times, taking literary tour groups to the fabulous Fitzgerald museum. They were not there all that long, but it’s such a great museum and the guide we had was superb.
Robyn
I lived on Longfellow St, Norman Park in Brisbane for 35 years. Other streets nearby were Thackeray, Tennyson, Dickens and Wordsworth. I see from one of your other readers that Tennyson and Wordsworth were also in Bulimba, only 4-5 kms away.
Susannah Fullerton
I see that streets named for authors are more common than I thought. Nice!
Yvonne read
The first home my husband and I bought was in a street named Shakespeare Parade. I thought it was terribly grand.
It is a long time ago and I can’t remember if any of the surrounding streets had similar names.
Susannah Fullerton
It does indeed sound grand! I wonder if there were any Romeo or Juliet Streets nearby?
Peter Windeyer
In Mudgee a subdivision that was opened about 25 years ago or so has all the streets named after authors and one poet – Banjo Patterson, White, Hardy, Durack, Denton, Tennant, Palmer, Elizabeth Dark and Grant Bruce. The streets of new subdivisions are usually named by the developer. I imagine these are some of the favourite authors of the developer
Susannah Fullerton
Oh I am so please there is a street named for Mary Grant Bruce. Her Billabong books were some of my childhood favourites.
Margaret Clingan Wright
Yes, they were magical, weren’t they?
I was with Norah and Jim all the way. My old school friend has the entire collection, but her children don’t want them…what to do?
Susannah Fullerton
Jim was one of my first great loves, and I formed many impressions of Australia (not all of them correct) from the Billabong books. I have the complete set and still occasionally reread them.
Helen Jakobi
Hi Susannah, there’s a street in Central London called Helen Place – good enough for me 🙂 and probably my only claim to fame.
Susannah Fullerton
I wonder which Helen it was named for??
Margaret Clingan Wright
Hi Helen and Susannah,
I wonder if that’s St Helen’s Place, near St Helen’s Church Bishopsgate, in the City of London?
Susannah Fullerton
I hope St Helen had something to do with books?
Sue Green
In a corner of Bulimba in Brisbane, we have Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Cowper, Byron and Tennyson streets. I always think of Austen when passing Cowper on a morning walk.
Susannah Fullerton
Yes, Jane Austen’s favourite poet, though I must admit to finding his poetry rather dull.
Sue Baillie
I used to live in Robinson St and close by there was a Hercules St and then I found out that a 19C governor of NSW was called Hercules Robinson so it must have been named for him. Close by there were also Victoria and Albert, Victoria being the most important of course.
Susannah Fullerton
Oh they should be for Robinson Crusoe and Hercules Poirot!
Margaret Clingan Wright
One of Canberra’s latest suburbs is called Wright after poet Judith Wright. All of the streets there are named after poets, as far as I can see. One is Clingan Street, named after my mother, Marian Clingan (1913-1998).She was one of the best read people I have known, and wrote poetry and short stories all her life. After initially being sad at having to leave the cultural life of Sydney (our father opened a bookshop in newly built Monaro Mall in early 1963) for the country town of Canberra at that time, she grew to love the city and its developing national institutions. Her poetry reflected this, and she wrote about concerts,works in the art gallery, exhibitions,people doing things, events that moved or interested or amused her, in Canberra or elsewhere, and one of her poems (about a sculpture by Rumanian artist) was translated into Rumanian and is in an anthology there). Her poems were frequently published in newspapers and literary journals, and she read some of them on the ABC from time to time.
Susannah Fullerton
How gorgeous to have a street named after your writing mother! And to have a father running a bookshop – what a wonderful literary heritage. Thanks for sharing that with me.
Margaret Wright
Thanks, Susannah.
And Dad also wrote – mainly short stories and even had a book published by Stratford Press, Sydney, in 1950 “Mirror on the Wall” about his observations of people , his philosophy, music, books, culture ..I guess you’d say it’s a book of essays.
So although the street is named after our mother, I like to think that it covers dad as well.
Yes, we 5 Clingan children had a magical (even though somewhat financially straitened!) upbringing, surrounded by books, music and pictures, with visits to (free) concerts in Sydney Art Gallery, and theatre performances. Of course we spent each Saturday morning in the local library, and Christmas and birthday gifts were always books. These we treasured, and now hand them on to grandchildren.
Susannah Fullerton
The ebst birthday gifts of all – I always wanted books for my birthdays. It does sound like a fabulous and cultured childhood – you were lucky!
Sally Petherbridge
And one more which I know you know about ! – the suburb of Franklin in canberra, named for Miles franklin, of course, has streets named after writers, including my aunt Helen Haenke. Haenke Street is at right angles to Manning Clark street
many years ago, while driving around Byron Bay with my parents, I suddenly realised that several streets were named after poets – well, of course, but I would have to look them up to remind myself who they were.
Susannah Fullerton
Yes, of course. Franklin is a great example. Thanks also for letting me know about Byron Bay.
Michelle Doyle
The Melbourne suburb of Sandringham has an area known as Poets’Corner. The streets are named after Thomas Campbell, John Keats, John Edward Masefield, Alfred Tennyson and the playwright/journalist George Robert Sims.
Whilst not a huge number of streets in the City of Bayside are named for women the lane Clarice Beckett lane is named after this female artist.
Susannah Fullerton
Thanks for letting me know. I would like to live in a street named for a great writer!
TIM HEATH
Hi Susannah and Readers, In Napier New Zealand there must have been a book lover on the Council some 100 years ago. Their legacy is the following street names in the central area: Thackery, Emerson, Tennyson, Shakespeare, Milton, Browning, Burns, Byron, Goldsmith, Priestly, Dickens, Kipling, Colenso, Bracken. The last two are NZ writers, probably not known elsewhere.
One wonders how the selection was made and if there were others, like Katherine Mansfield, who were vetoed by other members of Council?
Susannah Fullerton
Thanks, Tim. Yes, it would be really interesting to know how that selection was made. I’ve never heard of Colenso, and it does seem strange that there is no Katherine Mansfield street. But at least there’s a statue of ehr in Wewllington.