Delhi Outram Estate, Islington
Just north of London Kings X lies the “#Delhi_Outram_Estate” in #Islington, a council estate built in the late 1970s which appears to commemorate the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (& its brutal suppression by the British) with streets named after those associated with its key events.
Some of the streets predate the estate itself, presumably having been named soon after the suppression of the Mutiny and the establishment of the Raj proper. Delhi Street was named after the Mughal capital of India, whose fall to the British was a significant event, in 1871.
Similarly Outram Place would seem to run along the erstwhile Outram St, recorded in the 1861 Census, and named after “General Sir James Outram, who along with Havelock, relieved Lucknow”
Sir Henry Havelock, who died of dysentery a few days after the Siege of Lucknow ended, also got a street named after him pretty much contemporaneously. Havelock St seems to have been laid out between 1856-9.
But some of the names of streets in the estate seem to date from the redevelopment of this area into the present council estate, in the late 1970s. Vibart Walk, named in 1980, May be named after Edward Vibart, who was an EIC army officer who chronicled the events of 1857…
… or his father, Major Edward Vibart, who was executed on June 27, 1857 by the rebels after being captured in Kanpur. Who knows? But Islington Council did name this “walk” after this “hero” of 1857 as late as 1980.
And then we have Brydon Walk, named after William Brydon, an EIC Army Surgeon who was one of the few of 4,500 men & 12,000 accompanying civilians to survive the “long retreat” from Kabul to Jalalabad in 1842 & survived the siege of the Lucknow Residency (a survivor, this one!)
Then, we have Campbell Walk, named in 1980 after Sir Colin Campbell, Baron Clyde, who was commander of the British forces in India during the Rebellion. He “never married or fathered any children”…. Hmm.
Finally, there’s Lawrence Place, named after Sir Henry Lawrence, who died during the siege of Lucknow. Also named in 1980. Incidentally, his son was created 1st Baronet Lawrence of Lucknow, in 1868. The Baronetcy survives; their apparent is one Christopher Cosmo Lawrence, a visual effects supervisor who won an Oscar for his work on Gravity in 2013 & has been nominated thrice since. Anyway, thought Islington Council naming streets after colonial celebrities as late as 1980 was … fascinating.
All the information on street names and dates comes from the wonderful “Streets With a Story: The Book of Islington” by Eric A Willats, which I found online.
▻https://twitter.com/sd268/status/1597333942361018368
#Londres #UK #Angleterre #toponymie #toponymie_politique #colonialisme #colonisation #Inde
ping @cede