ne Grub Street
Sir: You rightly reprobate the unnecessary renaming of Selous Street in Camden (Notebook, 23 July), but the problem is not a new one. I scribble away opposite the eponymous haven of harmless drudges — Grub Street. Except that some high-minded `improver' had it changed to Milton Street by some curious mental process.
If Carnaby Street can now be renamed Selous Street, perhaps at the same time Westminster City Council could restore Of Alley in that little network of streets near Charing Cross commemorating George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.
In Oxford.they manage these things more subtly. The mediaeval name of Magpie Lane (for some time the place of residence of Jan Morris) was Gropecunt Lane. A mumbled vestige of this is preserved in the adjoining Grove Court.
Christopher Howse
Catholic Herald, Herald House, Lambs Passage, Bunhill Row, London EC1
Previous page
