What's in a name ?
 At
first people knew where they were through familiar landmarks and
verbal directions. Then in 1810 Governor Macquarie introduced a
little order through naming the main streets and directing ‘posts
and fingerboards with the names of the streets painted on them to
be erected’.
Street names tell us about the history of a place. There are names
for kings and queens (George Street, William, Charlotte…)
for governors (Macquarie, Hunter , King …) and for British
officials (Bathurst, Liverpool …). The once lawless Woolloomooloo
got a whole lot of streets named after judges (Dowling, Forbes,
Plunket…). Albion Street was named for a brewery, Goodlet
Street for a brickworks, while an early nursery in what became industrial
Chippendale resulted in odorous streets with fragrant names such
as Pine , Myrtle, Wattle and Rose.
When a street name became infused with unsavoury connotations,
residents would try to get it changed. When the nation went to war
against Germany in 1914 streets with German names became known differently.
There is always a story behind the name.
Images
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George
Street
George Street at Martin Place, c.1925. George Street was
generally referred to as High Street until 1810. It was customary
in England to call a town’s principal shopping street
High Street. George Street was named for King George III by
Governor Macquarie in 1810. Macquarie bequeathed a very British
and monarchist flavour to the central streets – the
given names of the current monarch, George III, and his queen,
Charlotte – and the ducal titles of the sons of George
III – York, Cumberland, Sussex, Clarence, Cambridge
and Kent.
(image: City of Sydney Archives, SRC photographic
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Elizabeth
Street
Elizabeth Street, looking south from the intersection of
Hunter Street, 11 January 1933. Named by Governor Macquarie
in 1810 for his second wife, Elizabeth Henrietta Campbell
(1778-1835). This street was earlier known as Mulgrave Street.
(image: City of Sydney Archives,
CRS 51/2674)
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| Shorter
Lane
Anyone could petition the Council requesting a name change.
Occasionally the reason given was simply that a name was needed,
as Mr Shorter suggested in 1875 when he asked that a name
be given to the lane at the back of his house “unless
it is too insignificant to notice”. Mr Shorter’s
humility was rewarded, and the lane leading from Upper Forbes
Street to Thomson Street was named Shorter Lane.
(image: City of Sydney Archives, CRS 23/29,
no.209a) |
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| Proposed
name changes
In 1903 the Council considered a proposal to rename George,
Castlereagh, York and Clarence Streets. The alternative names
suggested were, respectively, Wentworth Street, Dalley Street,
Lang Street and Kendall Street. The motion was defeated, to
the relief of the Town Clerk. He commented in his annual report
that the decision “from the purely business standpoint
will be appreciated by commercial people, to whom expense
and inconvenience must have been occasioned had the suggested
change been adopted.”
(image: City of Sydney Archives, SRC photographic
files) |
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Duplicate
names
After its creation in 1842, the City Council was the body
which named streets, or at least formalised names in use.
On several occasions there was a wholesale renaming as in
1875, when about 60 street name changes were approved. The
motivation for many of these changes was to eradicate duplication.
Inconvenience and confusion continued to be a problem occasioned
by the duplication of street names, judging by the alteration
of over 100 names in 1905. These are outlined in the Resolution
of Council 3 October 1905. According to the Town Clerk, who
did a quick survey of the rate book at the time, there were
“three streets named Albert Street, two named Alfred
Street, two named Bowman Street, two named Campbell Street,
three named Chapman Street, two named Cooper Street, two named
Crown Lane, two named Gipps Street …” and the
list went on.
(image: City of Sydney Archives, Proceedings of Council, 1905)
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| Little
George Street
Little George Street, 1902. ‘Little’ streets
are usually matched with a street name without this prefix.
In this case Little George Street ran perpendicular to George
Street and connected it to Pitt Street. It wasn’t nearly
as grand as its big brother. It housed two storey shops, workshops,
and stores. Little George Street was renamed Curtin Place
as part of the Australia Square development in 1966, after
John Curtin, Prime Minister, 1941-45.
(image: City of Sydney Archives, CRS 51/131) |
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| Dangar
Place
Dangar Place, Chippendale, c.1909. This street was known
as Cecil Place until 1882. Thomas Dangar, a major Chippendale
landholder, lobbied Council to have the street’s name
changed in exchange for him providing street lighting.
(image: City of Sydney Archives, CRS 51/337) |
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| Windmill
Street
The Hero of Waterloo Hotel, cnr Lower Fort Street and Windmill
Street, c.1907. Windmill Street disappears down to the right
of the photograph. One of the first streets in Millers Point,
it ran to three windmills operated by Jack Leighton on the
Point from about 1815.
(image: City of Sydney Archives, CRS 51/177) |
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Paradise
Row
Smithers Street, Chippendale, c.1900. This little street
was known as Paradise Row until c.1870. The row of houses
was owned by Thomas Broughton, slum landlord and Mayor, 1846.
The houses were notoriously bad: jerrybuilt barrack-type houses
which sheltered too many of the city’s poor in the 1840s
and 50s.
(image: City of Sydney Archives, CRS 51/25)
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Robin
Hood Lane
7-13 Dean’s Place, c.1913. Dean’s Place was originally
called Robin Hood Lane until 1882. It was named for the Robin
Hood Tavern, and after its demolition for Alexander Dean,
Alderman, 1879-90, building contractor. The name Robin Hood
Lane remained in common use and appeared on maps well into
the twentieth century. The street closed in 1964 when it was
amalgamated into the site to the Australia Square development.
(image: City of Sydney Archives, CRS 51/577)
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