Pretentious Names

[wavyline girl]

I mean I had to laugh when they started calling it "Bellenden Village", but now it would appear the

supermarket on Bellenden Road has become a "Village Store"

[charlesfare]

Where exactly is Bellenden Village?

[wavyline girl]

Peckham!

[charlesfare]

Duh! I mean, where in relation to Bellenden Road?

[wavyline girl]

I think it might have started as Estate agent hype, for the area behind Goose Green, centring around Bellenden road.

[uncleglen]

Everywhere around here there are villages- all joined together with tonnes of concrete and tarmac..

[charlesfare]

Never heard human beings with actual souls refer to it like that. Gotta put the kibosh on that sort of nonsense pronto, it's a bit like when collonizers in the New World started renaming the roads.

[Too Good To Be True]

What about The Lyndhurst Toastrack? A classic from GJM Property...

Surely Lyndhurst Ladder sounds better.

[wavyline girl]

I will herd my cows past Ye Olde Village Store on the morrow, to find out what just hearty fayre they might have in store.

[PokerTime]

Just a ridicuous ploy to sell an area as something it's not. It's a bit like selling factory made jam as rural homemade jam by putting a pretty rural label on it. Bellenden Road has never been part of a 'village'. It and the streets around it were built on the fruit gardens that predated it, from the 1870's onwards. It came along with the railway as part of the growing then suburbs of London. If estate agents were to do their research though, they would also find out that it was disproportionately occupied by French Huguenots in it's early days, hence businesses and streets with French names, like the Montpelier and Choumert Road.

[wavyline girl]

?and Muschamp Road I guess as well. Interesting.

Come to think of it, that reminds me of another pretentious naming thing - people giving their shops French names!

[Loz]

In Vienna, all the pretentious shops have English names.

[StraferJack]

Pretension is great. Don't know why people are so killjoy ish about it

Pretension over prosaic reality any day

[PokerTime]

Personally I never pay attention to the name of a business. If they are selling something I want to buy at a price I'm happy to pay then who cares what they call themselves. I like Bellenden Road. I like the cafe there (the breakfast one) and I've gotten happily drunk a few times in the Victoria Inn. It's still a Road that caters for everyone imo. But it's not a village - never has been and never will be.

[Mustard]

Too Good To Be True Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> What about The Lyndhurst Toastrack? A classic

> from GJM Property...

>

> Surely Lyndhurst Ladder sounds better.

There is a Ladder in Haringey, and a Toastrack in Wandsworth, so I guess they are aligning themselves with Wandsworth.

[Robert Poste's Child]

Herne Hill has been trying to claim village status for years. Probably worth 25% on house prices.

[Alan Medic]

charlesfare Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Never heard human beings with actual souls refer

> to it like that. Gotta put the kibosh on that sort

> of nonsense pronto, it's a bit like when

> collonizers in the New World started renaming the

> roads.

New Zealand was once divided into 3 of the provinces of Ireland.

[Otta]

Businesses on Kirkdale between Dartmouthe Road and Cobb's Corner have started calling that area Kirkdale Village. I'm not sure that'll tske off.

[Parkdrive]

I always thought my old school's name, Peckham Manor, sounded hugely pretentious. Delusions of grandeur or what.

[Jeremy]

Back to the OP... The Village Store is a daft name. But I like the shop. They've adapted well. Good fruit and veg. Good range of beer.

[KidKruger]

I believe there used to be a Peckham manor, just as there was a Friern manor - so it was probably named in homage to the old estate.

[El Pibe]

market gardens, a line of houses, a green and a pond, you couldn't get villagier if you tried!!!

*it ain't a google maps mashup so a bit clunkier than our poilt arses are used to these days. use the zoom button a couple of times and drag it south

[El Pibe]

1850s

ok strcitly speaking 'bellenden' itself was never a village, but definitely bucolic!!

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~1584~130073:The-Environs-Of-London--Published-B;jsessionid=E83170580D9F17C819B709970E0B22D1?showTip=false&showTipAdvancedSearch=false&title=Search+Results%3A+List_no+equal+to+%270149.071%27&thumbnailViewUrlKey=link.view.search.url&helpUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lunaimaging.com%2Fsupport%2F6_0%2FLUNA%2Fen%2FAbout_Luna_and_Insight.htm&fullTextSearchChecked=&advancedSearchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lunaimaging.com%2Fsupport%2F6_0%2FLUNA%2Fen%2FAdvanced_Search.htm

[Huggers]

The Village Store until recently was a basic quick-save kind of little supermarket,

It found itself surrounded by very smart shops, including an organic type grocery store - ''General Stores'' with very smart front next to it.

The little supermarket, which has always been useful, has risen to the challenge, smartened itself up, given itself a retro front makeover, changed its name and started to provide more interesting veg and provisions. Therefore not losing out to the newcomers.

Talking to the guys who have run it for years, they are very pleased with the response of local consumers- they still provide for basic Peckham necessities but are also giving the new posh deli type places a run for their money.

I think it looks great. They will also get veg in if you ask- I was asking for swedes.

Isnt this the kind of smartening up you all wanted for Rye Lane?

and before you mock, the little retro parade of shops on ST Johns Street in Islington was just such a row of scruffy shops that took a united decision to give themselves a retro makeover with old fashioned matching awnings...and the rest is history.

Bellenden Road looks very pretty now.

[Jeremy]

Couldn't agree more, Huggers. They still do the core range of groceries and essentials, but have responded to the changes in the area by providing what people want. They've also obvioulsy spotted a gap in the market for a greengrocer. Seems like a good example of how to run a small business.