New guidance for street naming launched

With the UK’s colonial past being highlighted by the Black Lives Matters movement and others a light has been shone on the historical legacy of street, building and monument names. As a result many local councils are looking at requests to explain or re-name streets and buildings to avoid links to slavery.

And with street naming being one of the more unheralded functions of building control, new comprehensive guidance from Geoplace – a joint venture between the Local Government Association and the Ordnance Survey – will help. Geoplace has produced all-inclusive guidance to help local authorities with the legalities, processes and documentation when naming streets and buildings.

The guidance covers everything from confusing names, naming after living and dead persons, consultation with historical societies, avoiding names that are obscene (or could be vandalised to be so), the use of Royal connections, advertising or commercial names and even the use of punctuation.

Download the guidance

_{Picture courtesy of Geoplace.}