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

There's a Little London in Swindon... we also have The Planks.

Titty Ho in Raunds, Northamptonshire

*jumps up and down and waves hanky* peanut - it's not too late to write an Entry for Peer Review - we need all sorts of interesting topics for consideration for the first Front Page Entry in our new home. You can see some the details here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F21544444?thread=8251114 *fold hanky and sits calmly* Slightly differently, there is a narrow passage between two buildings in our ancient market town known as Picton Street. It actually is so narrow that two people have to pass each other sideways unless they are really really skinny. It's about 30 metres long, so it can be quite 'friendly'

I think Parliament Street in Exeter lays claim to being the narrowest street in the UK- originally called Small Lane, which is much more apt.

So does St Mary's Passage in Shrewsbury. I can only just walk through it without having to turn my shoulders. Most of it was demolished though, so there's only a short section left attached to a house. You can more easily walk around it than walk through it.

You can find Butts Wynd in St Andrews.

I'm loving the names

Canadian contingent-

Bastard Ward, Town of Rideau Lakes (Ontario)
Buttertubs Drive, Nanaimo (British Columbia)
Dingle Bingle Hill Terrace, Nanaimo (British Columbia)
Jingle Pot Road, Nanaimo (British Columbia)
Ragged Ass Road, Yellowknife (North West Territories)
Rue Schmuck, Shefford (Quebec)
Merrymeeting Road, St. John’s
Quidi Vidi Road, St. John’s
The Witless Bay Line, Witless Bay (Newfoundland & Labrador)

Been on four of those, I have.

Scratchy Bottom, anyone?

Dorset.

Oh thank you very much. Just a little to the left .... and up a bit .... aaah

You're welcome.

Here in our little corner of the Med, we live just outside a little town known as Paralimni. Its literal Greek translation is 'by the lake'.

Picturesque and lovely.

Only we don't have one - it's just a huge dry patch that gets a puddle in the middle once every five years or so when it rains a bit. A lake it is not.

*BUT*, we do have a Yuri Gagarin Street. Apparently he came here once. I'm not sure if he arrived in his space-ship though.

Yippee Calle (Corrales, New Mexico - just 1/4 mi from my house in fact)

That won't make too much sense unless one realizes "Calle" is Spanish for "street" or "way," and the correct pronunciation of "Calle" is "KI-yay," and one also is familiar with the old American West cowboy expression "yippee ki-yay" as in the famous scenes from the film "Die Hard."

Ahhhh, now you get it!

I work in an office on the aforementioned Letsby Avenue in Sheffield, the apron road of the now-defunct Sheffield Airport. The name, like the road itself, is modern (c.2000) and a very deliberate reference to the South Yorkshire Police HQ at one end. Dozens of firms on quite a large business park should really have it in their postal addresses, but most have opted for the anodyne Europa Link (which runs parallel) instead.

Sheffield has got some good street names of the more naturally-conceived variety too. In the city centre, Snig Hill and Blonk Street are strange but pleasing. On the Rotherham border, there's the ominous Deadman's Hole Lane.

A few miles east in Conisborough, they had the glorious Butt Hole Lane but apparently the council have now changed it. Perhaps they got tired of incredulous visitors.

I was in Silverstone at the weekend for the Grand Prix and was amused to see that in the village a former F1 champion is commemorated by a street simply named 'Graham Hill'.

Closer to home, in Dartmouth we have a steep narrow hill called Jawbones. This is reputedly because the lane, which used to be the principle route into the town, once had a 'gateway' formed by the jawbone of a whale.

In Totnes there's a fairly modern street called The Carrions, built on the site of the old abattoir. Nearby is the rather delightfully named Ticklemore Street.

Not strictly a street, but I've always liked 'Smockington Hollow' (a junction on the A5 near Leicester in a dip)

About...oooh...mumblemumble years ago, I worked for ITT in Harlow New Town. We were set to move to a new office on what was then called Second Avenue. Only the Labour* council decided to rename it Salvador Allende Way. This is quite witty when you know that the CIA backed coup in Chile was triggered by Allendes threat to nationalise ITT.

See also Nelson Mandela Place, Glasgow, the first UK street to be named after him...and also the location of the SA consulate.







* Actually, technically not Labour. The Cooperative Party affiliated to The Labour Party.

On which theme...in Rhodes Town I once stayed on Rochdale Street, named after the birthplace of the Cooperative Movement.

Re Threadneedle St / G*******t Lane. I believe that there was also one in Oxford and that the name comes from the fact that it was possible to 'buy affection' there.

Here near Hitchin we used to have Wibbly Wobbly Lane. It has now been re-named, Carters Lane. Why would you do that!

Apologies for all the asterisks. This post has been blocked for using offensive words (really I diddn't I used asterisks to start with - I've just added more!)

PP

I know Wibbly Wobbly Lane well. I used to live in Arlesey. I can attest to its wibbliness and, indeed, its wobbliness.

at PP

it takes five 'feks' before you bounce, that Taff he does lead me astray