h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Cycling through suburban Oxford last night, I came across one of my favourite street names of all time:

Dudgeon Drive

It describes all those aloof, middle class, peek-around-the-net-curtains neighbourhoods so perfectly I thought it was made up, and had to do a doubletake at it to make sure it was right. Superb

As for elsewhere, London has Cheapside and Poultry among others, and is not the only city with a Coventry Street. Yes, Coventry itself has one at CV2 4NA

Any others?

Did your trip through suburban Oxford take you past Crotch Crescent, Headington?

I used to live near a road called Harbinger Road in Birmingham.

I dread to think what was at the end...

There is also a road in Aston Birmingham which one can rock down to...

Electric Avenue

I lived in a street named Happyland North in Worcester for three years. There was also a Happlyand West.

Happyland East was destroyed by a German bomb during WW2. Apparently there was never a Happyland South.

Was it an OK place? In my experience places with twee road names tend to be in the most appalling areas.

For example anyone who has been to Southampton University will know to avoid Violet Road and Begonia Drive -part of the notorious Flowers Estate.
Violet road was affectionally known as Violent Road.

Speaking of Southampton - which along with Birmingham has an area called Shirley (this just amuses me for some reason known only to myself) - just off Shirly High Street there is a road called Dyer road. Nothing special in that, other than it has a funeral directors right on the corner

There's this bit of road in Sheffield that if one is travelling along it you would consider it to be one road, the same road all the way along. There are no junctions or roundabouts or halts or anything that would indicate that you are moving on to a different road, and hence on to a road that requires a different name.

So why does this stretch of road get 7 different names in the course of not much more than a mile and half!

We've got Bolsover Street at the bottom of the hill. This quickly becomes Winter Street as it passes the pub and the University Arts Tower. Next name (20 yards ahead) is Crookes Valley Road, there are no houses on this road, so why give it a whole new name? Then call it Barber Road when the houses start again, and on to the top of the hill. Obviously at this point we need a little breather to recover from the hill climb, so let's change the name of the road to Commonside. Somehow that's not satisfying enough a name, so we'll switch it Howard Road. We go gently around the bend by the old local lunatic asylum, and so it's time for a new name. Let's call this final stretch South Road, even if it does run north-westwards...

Icy North: >Did your trip through suburban Oxford take you past Crotch Crescent, Headington?<

No, but I just looked that one up in my A to Z. Unfortunately it hasn't got a rude shape or anything, but I'll check it out next time I'm there

Orcus: >There is also a road in Aston Birmingham which one can rock down to...Electric Avenue<

The eponymous Electric Avenue is in Brixton, very near the Academy. With a greengrocer's on the corner. There is also an area of Brixton called the Front Line...

Hastings (the hilly hometown I deserted) has Undecliff and also White Rock, because there used to be a massive rock there before it was dynamited.

I didn't know he was actually singing about a real road,

Mines is 'Helmet Row' in Shoreditch.

There is a Hag Hill Lane near me

Near where I grew up there's a hill called All Port Height- the roads that encircle it are rather wonderfully called (clockwise) Knob Lane, Bent Lane, Rough Piece Lane and The Bent. Some lucky family also get to live at Rough Piece Farm.

I've always had a soft spot for 'Crooked Usage' (London N3)

There's a street in Belfast called, rather ominously, Balaclava Street.

The road next to my house in the UK is called Google Close. It's been there far longer than the infamous search engine, but strangely enough most people seen driving/walking in the close are looking for something else!

Forknell Avenue in a dodgy part of Coventry. Would have been worth living there just to be able to swear every time you said your address.

In Raunds Northamptonshire there is a road called Titty Ho.

I also remeber a Trunch Lane near Ingoldmells Lincolnshire.

There's a cul-de-sac in Romford called Howe Close A little further out into Essex, you'll find Shonks Mill Lane. And how could Ha Ha Road, Woolwich not raise a ?

I like Rockingham Street in Sheffield - not sure why though. And Penistone Road always raises a smile when I drive accross it.

(and odd that so many places have a Flower Estate - I was born on Sheffield's version - Daffodill Road which now looks more like Beirut, unfortunately)