Britain’s road names are unimaginative, writes Richard Norton-Taylor . We should use them to commemorate notable figures as they do on the continent

Martin Kettle is right (Britain has too many statues – let’s remember in other ways, 26 April). He suggests high-quality public art or a “tolerant and questioning” museum of the history of the British Isles.

But what about street names? Instead of countless Acacia Avenues and roads named unimaginatively after British towns and regions, we should follow the widespread practice on the continent where streets, squares, even underground stations, commemorate poets, civil rights campaigners, and victims of repression, as well as past national leaders and military commanders.

To take just three examples that immediately come to mind: Brussels has an Avenue Winston Churchill, a Paris Métro station on the Champs-Élysées is named Franklin D Roosevelt, and the Quay of the Exiled Spaniard overlooks the River Garonne in Toulouse.

In Britain, individuals are commemorated, begrudgingly it seems, here and there. In Haringey, north London, there is a Nelson Mandela Close, almost hidden away, almost apologetically.

Richard Norton-Taylor

London

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