These pages are based on the book A guide to Enfield street names, by Graham Dalling. Published about 1982 by the Enfield Preservation Society. (Heritage Series, no. 2). – ISBN 0 907318 01 0. – Now out of print.
Introduction by Graham Dalling
Before 1884, when the Enfield Local Board of Health adopted a policy of erecting name plates, street naming in Enfield was in a state of total anarchy. Many streets were known simultaneously by a number of different names, and to add to the confusion there were often cases of several streets having the same name. It is hardly surprising that in 1881, shortly before the census was taken, the Registrar General wrote to the Enfield Local Board of Health complaining about the problems caused to census enumerators by the lack of street name plates and street numbering. The postmen of this period must have had an incredibly difficult time.
In this book I have tried to produce a guide to the street names of Enfield. Obviously, to include every single one would result in a work of unpublishable length. Therefore I have restricted myself to those streets in existence by 1914.
I have attempted to trace all the various names by which the streets have been known and, where possible, to offer some explanation of those names. For residential streets built since 1850, I have tried to ascertain approximately when the road was laid out and the first houses constructed.
The sources used have been many and various. The Enfield Enclosure Award of 1806 with its accompanying maps and the 1754 Tithe Map (at Trinity College, Cambridge) have both yielded up a rich store of names, as has the 1572 Survey of Enfield (at the Public Record Office), Many names have been extracted from the 25-inch to the mile Ordnance Survey Maps of 1867, 1896, and 1914. Other profitable documents were the enumerators’ schedules of the 1851 and 1871 censuses. The richest sources of all have been the report books kept by the surveyors to the Enfield Local Board of Health from 1864 to 1893. These contained details of deposited plans and also of inspection visits to building sites, which have therefore provided the construction dates for many streets. Kelly’s Enfield Directory from 1899 to 1914 has been very useful in providing the dates when the first houses in a new road were occupied. Another valuable source has been old auctioneers’ catalogues and plans.
The area covered is essentially that of the former Borough of Enfield as it stood in 1965, but with certain minor variations. I have included a large area of Cockfosters which was transferred to Southgate in 1934. I have also included the Causeway and Coopers Lane, which were transferred to Potters Bar in 1924. However, I have excluded the part of Monken Hadley village which belonged to Enfield prior to 1894. The street names of this area do not belong in a study of Enfield, from which it is physically isolated, but should more properly be dealt with as part of Monken Hadley and Barnet.
The booklet includes only street names. Generally speaking most of the `terraces’, ‘cottages’ and ‘rows’ have been excluded for space reasons. They have been included only when they form separate cul-de-sacs, yards or courts.
The booklet is arranged in alphabetical order. Entries have been made under the current name, except for thoroughfares which, for various reasons, have disappeared altogether, leaving no modern successors.
No work of this type can hope to be complete and free from errors. If any reader can add to the information that has been gathered, I shall be glad to hear from them.
Acknowledgements
To my colleague David Pam for help and advice and, more particularly, for making available his work on the 1572 Survey of Enfield.
To Eric Liddiard of the Enfield Preservation Society, whose paper on the derivation of some Enfield street names, prepared for the EPS Records and Research group, inspired this publication.
This book is dedicated to the memory of Messrs. Ironside, Lewis and Kitteringham, who successively held the post of Surveyor to the Enfield Local Board of Health. Their report books have provided the main substance of the present text.
Citations
Citations in the text appear in square brackets [like this] and refer to these sources of information.
AC: Auctioneers’ catalogues. (All the catalogues referred to are held by the London Borough of Enfield Libraries.)
Ce: Census enumerators’ schedules. (The London Borough of Enfield Libraries hold microfilm copies of the enumerators’ schedules for the censuses of 1841, 1851, 1861 and 1871.)
EA: Enfield Enclosure Award. The Enclosure Act was passed in 1801 and the award was drawn up in 1806. (The award and its accompanying maps are held by the London Borough of Enfield Libraries.)
GBH: General Board of Health report on sanitary conditions in Enfield, 1850. (A copy is held by the London Borough of Enfield Libraries.)
K: Kelly’s Directory of Enfield published annually 1899-1939. References prior to 1899 are to Kelly’s Directory of Middlesex.
RB: Report books of the Surveyor to the Enfield Local Board of Health, 1864-1993, (Held by the London Borough of Enfield Libraries.)
S: 1572 Survey of Enfield. (Held by the Public Record Office DL43/7/5.)
TM: Enfield Tithe Map, 1754. (The orignal is at Trinity College, Cambridge. A copy is held by the London Borough of Enfield Libraries.)
O.S. refers to Ordnance Survey maps, twenty-five inches to the mile, editions of 1867, 1896 and 1914.