BY TRISTAN CORK
Moves to rename Clifton’s Blackboy Hill and have Bristol follow the lead of London are unlikely to get anywhere - because the road is not officially called that anyway.
People in Tottenham came together earlier this week to celebrate the renaming of a street there - from Black Boy Lane to La Rose Lane after a Black poet, publisher and activist.
The move has sparked something of a backlash online, and within hours one of the new road name signs in north London had been vandalised. But there seems little prospect of Bristol’s version - the infamous Black Boy Hill at the end of Whiteladies Road - getting renamed, because there is no road called Black Boy Hill.
Research pulled together by Bristol Live in 2020, following the toppling of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston, revealed a mixed and confusing picture regarding the name ‘Black Boy Hill’, and it’s one which could make it a challenge to actually rename the road.
Because on the map, on the postal addresses and most crucially on the physical road name signs, there is no Black Boy Hill at all.
The hill at the north end of Whiteladies Road that leads up to Clifton Down has been known for centuries as Black Boy Hill – or Blackboy Hill.
But the official name of the road has always been Whiteladies Road – right to the top where it meets the crossroads of Westbury Road to the north east, Upper Belgrave Road towards the zoo to the west or goes straight on across the Downs on Stoke Road.
All the shops and flats along both sides of the hill are numbered from around 170 right up to the last shop on the corner – Gyles Brothers sporting goods – which is 186 Whiteladies Road. No address contains Black Boy Hill and there is no name plate on a building with that name.
The hill at the north end of Whiteladies Road that leads up to Clifton Down has been known for centuries as Black Boy Hill – or Blackboy Hill. But the official name of the road has always been Whiteladies Road – right to the top where it meets the crossroads of Westbury Road to the north east, Upper Belgrave Road towards the zoo to the west or goes straight on across the Downs on Stoke Road.
All the shops and flats along both sides of the hill are numbered from around 170 right up to the last shop on the corner – Gyles Brothers sporting goods – which is 186 Whiteladies Road.
No address contains Black Boy Hill and there is no name plate on a building with that name.
There are five references on the physical street to the fact this area is known as Black Boy Hill.
All four bus stops that are dotted across the top of the hill are officially known as ‘Black Boy Hill’. And the most obvious sign is for one of the businesses at the top of Whiteladies Road – Black Boy Hill Cycles.
The family-run business was started by Ollie Chandler’s father around 40 years ago, and has always been known as Blackboy Hill Cycles.
Ollie confessed he had not seen the furore surrounding the renaming of Black Boy Lane in Tottenham, but was obviously aware from previous campaigns that the name has been contentious.
He told Bristol Live the family had no intention of changing the name. “A lot of our loyal customers have told us they don’t want us to change it either. We’ve always been called Black Boy Hill Cycles, because that’s where we are,” he said.
What happened in Tottenham?
Following the Black Lives Matter protests in the early summer of 2020, and the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, people in the North London area of Tottenham began lobbying their local authority, Haringey Council, to consider the future of a residential street called Black Boy Lane.
Haringey Council began a consultation and a majority of people said they would like to see the name changed, although the council did acknowledge there was a ‘significant minority’ who said they wanted it to remain. The name was to be changed, and the new name was chosen – La Rose Lane, after local poet, publisher and activist John La Rose.
Prof Gus John, an academic and equality and human rights campaigner, helped set up New Beacon Books with Mr La Rose, and was also a close friend. He told the BBC: “I thought it was about time. For us as black people the very notion of Black Boy Lane when we remember the era of enslavement was more or less [that we were] mascots to the rich and wealthy, and has connotations for us in how we came to be here at all.
“In this day and age, with a growing African population in this country and more and more African heritage people born here, it seems completely backwards and archaic to have a road called Black Boy Lane,” he added.
The decision to rename the road was made in February last year, and the new name was unveiled in a ceremony earlier this week. The whole exercise, including the consultation, was reported to have cost Haringey Council £189,000 – something which added ammunition to commentators, particularly on social media, who criticised the decision and wanted the name to remain.
