Streets named after Andrew, formerly known as Prince but now plain Mountbatten-Windsor, can be found from Broadstairs to Belfast to Birmingham. Roads, avenues, terraces, lanes, crescents, closes, drives and ways are all afflicted – to the dismay of some residents.
In Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, Prince Andrew Way, celebrating Mountbatten-Windsor’s 1986 marriage to Sarah Ferguson, will be purged after Mid and East Antrim council passed a motion, described by one councillor as “sad but necessary”, to rename. A public consultation is under way.
In Maidenhead, Berkshire, there is a double whammy of Prince Andrew Road adjoining Prince Andrew Close, where some residents have complained of “surface-level embarrassment” , “smirks” and “raised eyebrows” whenever they give their address. The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead this week made it easier for any name change, tailoring its regulations to require two-thirds of residents to agree, where previously all had to. It does not have a timeline for any changes, but is working through it internally.
There are others, too, that will be considering options following the formal stripping of Mountbatten-Windsor of his styles and titles in the fallout over sex allegations he has always denied relating to Virginia Giuffre, a victim of the US financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Cambridge, Hitchin, Telford, Newport, Enniskillen and Dungannon all have roads bearing his name and royal prefix. A road in Norwich, however, is disputed, with one local councillor claiming it is in fact named after Prince Philip’s father, Prince Andrew of Greece.
RM Block
It will not be an easy process, however. Details on residents’ bank accounts, credit cards, driving licences, utility bills, property deeds, even pet microchips, will have to change, as will business letterheads and cards.
Crucially, there also has to be consensus on any new name, which is not always easy. When Black Boy Lane in Tottenham, north London, was renamed in 2023 after Black Lives Matter protests over claims it was linked to slavery, it took Haringey council three years and cost at least £50,000 (€43,000) in reimbursing residents in 168 properties for the expense of changing addresses.
The road was eventually renamed La Rose Lane, after John La Rose, a black publisher, writer and local political activist. But in the weeks that followed, residents on the road reportedly put up their own “Black Boy Lane” signs in windows in protest and a graffiti mural featuring the street’s original name was painted on the wall behind the road sign, since removed.
Councils must also consult with the emergency services and Royal Mail to avoid duplicates and confusion. To cover administrative costs, councils can charge a fee, varying from authority to authority. Land Registry legal fees, Google maps, satnavs – there are far-reaching implications.
Perhaps it is for this reason that the GeoPlace best-practice manual on street names discourages the use of names of living people, because of the risk of an Andrew-like situation.
The dead can also be problematic. The sign for Plaza Margaret Thatcher, named in Madrid in 2014, has been repeatedly vandalised, and politicised, even briefly being unofficially renamed Bobby Sands Plaza on the 40th anniversary of the death of the IRA member who died on hunger strike in the Maze prison. Meanwhile, Churchill Street in Tehran, where the British embassy was based, was officially renamed Bobby Sands Street in 1981, a problem the embassy swerved by creating a new entrance in next-door Ferdowsi Street, safely named after the Persian poet Ferdowsi, an Iranian hero.
Bristol city council, despite calls from some, has not changed streets named after the 17th-century trade slaver Edward Colston, a council spokesperson confirming this week that there are no open consultations on the subject.
“I think one reason why changes aren’t very common, and one reason for it being contentious, is the admin,” said Richard Harwood KC, an expert in planning law and joint head of 39 Essex Chambers.
Under the current legal framework, set out in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, local authorities must demonstrate they have secured “sufficient local support”. However, the Labour government has not introduced the secondary legislation – the regulations – to define precisely what “sufficient local support” means or to mandate a specific process, such as a formal referendum with a two-thirds majority.
“All we’ve got now is section 81 of the 2023 act. And that means it’s a matter for the local authority to alter the name, and the operation needs to have the necessary support,” said Harewood.
Whether that was simply a vote of residents in the street, or getting a two-thirds majority, “none of that has been clarified”.
Local authorities “would have to make a judgment whether the alteration has the necessary support and that it has sufficient local support”, which, he added, “is a bit muddy”.
Removing plaques seems a lot easier. In the Falkland Islands, four plaques unveiled by the former prince, who fought in the 1982 conflict with Argentina, have reportedly been removed, including one at a school and another at a hospital. A spokesperson for the British ministry of defence told the Guardian a plaque marking the opening of the RAF Mount Pleasant airbase in 1985 had also gone, but was in fact removed during renovations before the Epstein allegations and just never put back up. – Guardian
