A mild source of annoyance for me is when I give directions to people who know the city in question as well as I do, using street names, and the directions are met with blank stares. Once you give them a little more detail, a cinema on the corner, a bar you have gone to together on a number of occasions, or a school whose pupils clog the pavement come four o’clock, their faces light up with recognition. “Is that what that street is called?” they invariably say.
One might assume that the practice of naming streets originated to distinguish them from one another and to make navigating cities easier but that is no guarantee the name will stick in people’s minds. Or even that people need those names – Londoners and citizens of other British cities were able to find their way around during World War II when nameplates were removed from streets to foil any would-be enemy visitors.
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