Councillors agree to rename street linked to racism

Councillors in Haringey have agreed to change a street name that has been linked to racism and colonialism.

Black Boy Lane, in West Green, will be renamed La Rose Lane – in honour of writer and publisher John La Rose – after the council’s corporate committee approved the change during a meeting on Tuesday.

The renaming will take place by February next year but could happen as early as December this year. The council will provide a £300 payment to help residents and businesses cover the costs of the change.

Haringey Council launched a review of monument, building, place and street names following the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020. A consultation held last year found that although 72% of residents and businesses in Black Boy Lane opposed the renaming, most of those living in St Ann’s ward and Haringey borough as a whole supported the change.

Some 78% of those who responded to a fresh consultation held in December and January opposed the change, but the committee opted to rename the street after weighing up the arguments for and against the proposal.

Speaking during a deputation to the meeting, Vivek Lehal, from Stand Up To Racism, acknowledged the exact origin of the Black Boy Lane name was still debated. But he said The Black Boy pub, which used to be on the street corner, had an offensive image of a black male on the sign, and that slave owners had named their pubs The Black Boy.

Vivek said: “I think the overwhelming sentiment is now is the time to actually go with the Black Lives Matter movement, go with the sentiments of society, that these things are no longer acceptable in the world we live in now – I’m not sure they ever were, frankly, but they are certainly not now.

“I’m just urging this committee not to delay this decision any further, to be on the right side of history, and to decide that this name needs to go.”

Mike Hakata, ward councillor for St Ann’s and the council’s deputy leader, asked the committee to rethink its approach and change the name of Black Boy Lane in the context of the authority’s wider “strategic review” of place, monument, building and street names.

Giving examples of street names he personally found offensive, Cllr Hakata suggested people would support changing such names once they understood their origins.

He said George Padmore Institute, which was founded by La Rose, had told the council it was not happy with the process of the change and found it “tokenistic”. The deputy leader also claimed responses to the consultation were not being taken into account.

Some committee members also raised concerns over the response to the consultation. Barbara Blake asked about the implications of the committee disagreeing with residents.

In response, Charlotte Pomery, the council’s assistant director of commissioning, said the council had to give “due consideration” to the responses but the consultation was not a referendum. She added that the council would provide support to make up for any negative impacts on residents.

Joseph Ejiofor, the council’s former leader, who had pressed for the name to be changed urgently, told the committee: “This is a really important decision, not just for our community, but it is a way of addressing a hurt that has been going on for a number of years.

“I understand this is a controversial issue, I understand a number of residents desperately want to retain the name Black Boy Lane. But the fact is, it really is time for change […] we have the opportunity now to make that change and to address that historical wrong.”

Emine Ibrahim, another committee member, said it was important to consider the views of the wider borough as well as those living in Black Boy Lane, as it is a “shared space”. She added that the council should “properly compensate” people for any difficulties caused by the change.

Following the debate, eight committee members voted for the name change, with two abstentions. The committee then unanimously agreed for the change to take effect from 1st February 2023, but for officers to aim for an earlier implementation date of 1st December 2022.