Monday, 10 July 2006

Penny Lane

Penny Lane - the street made famous in the Beatles song - faces being wiped from the map because of its associations with the slave trade.
Councillors in Liverpool are considering plans to rename all streets named after people linked to slavery.
However, the city's leaders were unaware that this would mean losing one of its most famous and most photographed streets.
Penny Lane is thought to have been named after 18th century slave ship owner James Penny, who made his fortune in the industry. The slave trader was presented with a silver table in 1792 for speaking out against the abolition of slavery to a parliamentary committee.
The plan to re-name the city's "slavery" streets has been put forward by local councillor Barbara Mace.
One of the suggestions includes renaming one of the streets in honour of black teenager Anthony Walker, who was murdered in a racist attack in Liverpool last year.
Originally, Cllr Mace called for "all streets, squares and public places named after those who were involved in promoting or profiteering from the slave trade" to be renamed.
But the councillor has now distanced herself from the original proposals, which could have seen Penny Lane scrapped. She said: "I wasn't aware that Penny Lane was named after someone involved in the slave trade. However, ( a quick change of direction here:) I am not suggesting that all streets in the city associated with slavery should be renamed.
"If that was the case I think most of the city would be affected. My proposal is to rename several of the streets in the city centre which are named after the more notorious slave traders and replace them with the names of people who have done something positive."
The proposal will be considered by the city council at a meeting on Wednesday evening.