Five London Streets Named After Inspirational People

A few of the major streets in London are named after people: Downing Street (Sir George Downing), Shaftesbury Avenue (the Earl of Shaftesbury) and Regent Street (the Prince Regent, future King George IV), to name a few.

However, I wanted to highlight five streets in the city, named after lesser-known, but inspiring, figures. Let me know in the comments if there are any that you think should be included!

1. Catherine Griffiths Court, Islington

Our first is a short street in Islington named after Catherine Griffiths, known as the ‘last surviving suffragette’.

Catherine was born in 1885 in Wales, the daughter of a Welsh miner and started her career as a nurse. In the early 1900s she joined the Suffragette movement, fighting for the women’s right to vote. She smashed windows and was briefly imprisoned for trying to put tacks on the seat of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, in the House of Commons. She served as a nurse in World War One in France before settling with her family in Islington where she became involved in local politics.

From 1937-1965 Catherine was a labour councillor, becoming Mayor of Finsbury in 1960-61, pushing particularly for reforms in health, maternity and child care. In 1988 she was the guest of honour at the House of Commons 70th anniversary commemorations for women gaining the right to vote. She passed away a few months later aged 102.

Click the image below to see a video of her on her 100th birthday.

2. Jack Cornwell Street, Manor Park

Number two is a very tragic story. John ‘Jack’ Cornwell was born in 1900 in Leyton into a working class family. When World War One broke out, Jack quit his job as a delivery boy and joined the navy, aged 15. After his training he became a Boy Seaman First Class and was assigned to HMS Chester. 

On the 31st May 1916, HMS Chester was attacked during the Battle of Jutland by four German cruisers. Jack was the ‘sight setter’ for a forward gun and in the ensuing foray, his entire team was killed. Jack was very badly wounded, however, he somehow managed to get back up and stayed at his post for 15 more minutes, receiving orders, before HMS Chester withdrew. 

When medics arrived on the ship they found Jack as the only survivor, still standing at his gun. He was transferred to hospital but died of his wounds on the 2nd June. He was posthumously given a Victoria Cross, the highest military honour for gallantry and given a burial with full military honours in Manor Park Cemetery. 

You can see the gun he was stationed at and his Victoria Cross in the Imperial War Museum. 

3. John Archer Way, Battersea

John Archer was born in 1863 in Liverpool to Richard Archer, a shipping steward from Barbados, and Mary Teresa Burns from Ireland.

He met his wife Bertha in Canada before moving to Battersea in the 1890s. Archer soon became involved in the Battersea Labour League campaigning for improvements in social welfare in the borough. He became a councillor and then, in 1913, was nominated to be a candidate for Mayor of Battersea. Winning by one vote, he became the first Black man to hold a senior position within London’s government.

He served his year in office but remained very active in local politics, opposing cuts in unemployment relief and the use of a workhouse for Battersea’s young unemployed. John died in 1932 in Balham. 

4. Baylis Road, Lambeth

Baylis Road is named after a fantastic character called Lilian Baylis.

Lilian Baylis was born in Marylebone in 1874, before moving to South Africa with her family, touring their performance group ‘the Gypsy Travellers’. 

In 1898 she returned to London to help her aunt, Emma Cons, run the Old Vic Theatre, taking over as manager in 1912. She refused to stop putting on shows during the threat of air-raids in World War One, being quoted as saying ‘what’s an air-raid when my curtain is up?!’. 

She established the Old Vic’s reputation for high quality theatre and kept ticket prices low to make theatre accessible to the working class population of Lambeth. In 1931 she also raised funds to save and renovate the Sadler’s Wells Theatre in Islington, to be the home of her opera and ballet companies.

These went on to become the Royal Ballet and the English National Opera. Considering the National Theatre was also formed at the Old Vic Theatre, we have a lot to thank Lilian Baylis for! The studio theatre at Sadler’s Wells today is known as the Lilian Baylis Studio.

5. Salter Way, Bermondsey

Finally, Salter Way in Bermondsey is named after Dr Alfred Salter and his wife Ada.

Born in 1873, Alfred Salter trained as a Doctor at Guy’s Hospital and moved to Bermondsey in 1898. In 1900 he married Ada and set up a medical practice.

Alfred offered free services to those who could not afford it, Bermondsey being a deprived area of London at the time. He also led community campaigns to try to improve health and hygiene. Despite having the means to do so, he refused to live separately from those he was serving.

He was heavily involved in local politics and became MP for Bermondsey West in 1922, campaigning tirelessly for local improvements.

Ada, born in 1866, was also very involved in helping the local community through a group called the Bermondsey Settlement and then in her political roles as councillor for Bermondsey and then Mayor of Bermondsey in 1922, the first female mayor of a London borough.

She was particularly involved in improving housing and pushing for more green space around the borough.

Very tragically, in 1910, their daughter Joyce died, aged eight, from a scarlet fever epidemic that swept through the slums. Their grief only spurred them on further to improve conditions in the area. There is a wonderful sculpture of the Salters on the Thames Path called Dr Salter’s Daydream, that I have written about it in a previous blog post here. 

Thank you for reading, more of the history behind London’s streets below!