John Rowland wrote:
"David Boothroyd" wrote in message
...

The Metropolitan Board of Works (1855-1889)
had begun the work of renaming streets to remove
duplicates and stop people getting post intended for
the occupant of the same property on a different street
of the same name. It changed 3,000 names in its time.
The LCC had to be prodded by the Post Office to
continue it, and by 1935 it had changed 2,700 names.
At this point it began to see light at the end of the tunnel
and took a policy decision that there were to be no
duplicated names at all.

Thanks. I've seen a lot of street signs in North London that say
something like "Smith St N" instead of "Smith St N1". Do these signs
date from an interim period where names were unique to each sector
but not to the whole county? If not, what was the point of them?

I believe there was a time when the postal districts were simply North,
West, East etc. It was later that they were sub divided into smaller areas
with a number added to the original, hence W1, SW19 etc. Then of course came
the current postcodes.

Found this:-
http://www.wikisearch.net/en/wikiped..._district.html



Incidentally are there only two streets in
London which have fractional numbers in them?
(Balls Pond Road and London Wall)

I think there's one in Barnard Hill, N10. Also, The Vale in Childs
Hill has a number 0.

Incidentally, in HA5 there are two Pinner Roads, one at each end of
the area. Are there any other duplicated roads within a single
postcode area (not including cases where a single road has become
split)?