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"Made up" suburbs in your town/city

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tbtc

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The interesting thread about bus destination screens (https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...amed-a-destination.200802/page-2#post-4476216) shows that sometimes a bus company has invented a name for a terminus that doesn't sit neatly in one suburb or another.

Looking at Google Maps for Sheffield recently, I noticed a number of "suburbs" that I don't think I've ever heard to anyone refer to - "Deep Pit" / "Hillfoot" / "Spring Lawe" / "Philadelphia" / "Steel Bank" etc. There's maybe a road that shares its name with part of the name, but that's not the same as there actually being an identifiable suburb called that.

When I used to live in Leeds (back in the days before Zoopla etc, when you had to stare in Estate Agent windows to find properties to rent/buy), everywhere north of the city seemed to be some variation of "Headingly", as far as Estate Agents were concerned. I'd see houses advertised as being in "Far Headingley", "East Headingley", "Outer Headingley", "Nether Headingley" etc because they presumably realised that people wanted the cache of a "Headingley" address (rather than admit that the place was actually one of the other suburbs like Meanwood).

So, in your town/city, what places will you only find on maps etc, but not hear normal people refer to?
 
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Bletchleyite

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My former city, but a good one is "Aintree Village", which is all over the road signs but does not exist in the eyes of any Liverpudlian and never has. The name for the area, as any local will tell you, is "the Old Roan", named after the station and the (now closed) adjacent pub that gave that its name. (A "roan" is a kind of horse, by the way, which appeared on the pub sign).

Curiously, the area known as the Old Roan is shown as Aintree (without the "Village") on an OS map, when locals give this name not to the Old Roan, but to the area of terraced housing found near to Aintree Station and bordering the Racecourse (the other side of which would be known as Fazakerley, about the most Scouse sounding place you can imagine, a bit like Dudley if you want a stereotypical Black Country pronunciation!). And Bing Maps thinks it's in Bootle (it's not there either!) It's quite a small area, as once you go much past the cemetery towards the city centre it becomes Walton Vale.

With regard to my current one (well, town, technically), the bit of Bletchley towards Buckingham is known on maps and signs as Far Bletchley, but nobody actually calls it that.
 
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prod_pep

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My former city, but a good one is "Aintree Village", which is all over the road signs but does not exist in the eyes of any Liverpudlian and never has. The name for the area, as any local will tell you, is "the Old Roan", named after the station and the (now closed) adjacent pub that gave that its name. (A "roan" is a kind of horse, by the way, which appeared on the pub sign).

Curiously, the area known as the Old Roan is shown as Aintree (without the "Village") on an OS map, when locals give this name not to the Old Roan, but to the area of terraced housing found near to Aintree Station and bordering the Racecourse (the other side of which would be known as Fazakerley, about the most Scouse sounding place you can imagine, a bit like Dudley if you want a stereotypical Black Country pronunciation!). And Bing Maps thinks it's in Bootle (it's not there either!) It's quite a small area, as once you go much past the cemetery towards the city centre it becomes Walton Vale.

I have to disagree with this actually. It's the other way around for me: I've seldom heard anyone call Aintree village 'The Old Roan'. I knew a couple of people from Aintree (the village part) during my uni days and they never once referred to it as Old Roan. 'Aintree village' is exactly what they called it. Old Roan is a pub, as you say, which lent its name to the nearby station. The area of terraced housing south of Aintree Racecourse is in fact part of Walton according to the district signs (or informally I've occasionally heard it called 'Warbreck'). Aintree itself, of course, is part of Sefton borough so technically is outside Liverpool, not that I imagine many in the area consider themselves anything other than Scousers.

Looking at Google Maps' interpretation of Liverpool's suburbs, there are a few debatable ones. 'Stanley' is given as the area immediately north of Wavertree Tech. Park station which is also the name of a long-closed railway station in the area. I've never heard the name used myself and would consider that area to be part of Old Swan. There is also a 'Swanside' between Broadgreen and Roby; again, I've never heard of it. I'm not sure whether 'Sefton Park' and 'Calderstones' are justifiably suburbs in their own right or merely parks. 'Gillmoss' is a term used for the industrial estate on the East Lancs Road but it isn't the housing estate surrounding Willow Way as Google suggests: that's definitely Croxteth. A few district labels are in the wrong place too, such as Knotty Ash and Dovecot.

Now, a true made up suburb of Liverpool is 'Manor Park', which was the fictional setting for good old Brookside back in the day.
 
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Busaholic

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I lived in Blackheath in S.E. London for a few years, and close by for many more, and it's AMAZING how Blackheath has expanded in the last three decades into what were Lewisham. Lee Green. Kidbrooke, Shooters' Hill, East Greenwich, Charlton and even Deptford, that's without any new building!
 

Tetchytyke

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Plenty of examples in London where, as time goes by, an area comes to be known by its tube station not its actual name. Clerkenwell/Farringdon being the most obvious example.
 

Bletchleyite

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I have to disagree with this actually. It's the other way around for me: I've seldom heard anyone call Aintree village 'The Old Roan'. I knew a couple of people from Aintree (the village part) during my uni days and they never once referred to it as Old Roan. 'Aintree village' is exactly what they called it.

How old were they, out of interest? It is possible that the placing of those signs (which happened in the early to mid 1990s) has caused people to change what they called it. I grew up there until the late 1980s, and my Mum grew up on Greenwich Road by the cemetery which they definitely called Aintree, not Walton, and my grandparents never called it anything else, other than that the shops were "going to the Vale", short for Walton Vale. Though you took a bus to the Black Bull (again a pub, which may or may not still exist!).

FWIW to give you an indication it was Bradfield Avenue we lived on.

The term "Warbreck Moor" was sometimes used, but that was almost a synonym for "Walton Vale", which tallies with the fact that the station on the CLC under the bridge on which the Walton Vale shops are built was called Warbreck.

(As a slight forum connection both my grandfathers were lifetime railwaymen - this may have played no small role in my enthusiasm for the railway! The one who lived in Aintree was a WCML driver based at Edge Hill when he retired.)
 
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Bletchleyite

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I'm not sure whether 'Sefton Park' and 'Calderstones' are justifiably suburbs in their own right or merely parks

They are definitely places people do, or did, describe themselves as being from. I used to be a regular listener to the late night Radio Merseyside phone-ins, and they were definitely terms used. Obviously, given the tendency of Scousers to abbreviate stuff, the former was always called "Sevvy Park" :)
 

prod_pep

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How old were they, out of interest? It is possible that the placing of those signs (which happened in the early to mid 1990s) has caused people to change what they called it. I grew up there until the late 1980s, and my Mum grew up on Greenwich Road by the cemetery which they definitely called Aintree, not Walton, and my grandparents never called it anything else, other than that the shops were "going to the Vale", short for Walton Vale. Though you took a bus to the Black Bull (again a pub, which may or may not still exist!).

They'd be late twenties to early thirties now as this was a few years ago. I've checked with a bus driver mate of mine and he said that people only ask for 'Old Roan' if they mean the junction by the railway station and pub at Copy Lane; otherwise, 'Aintree village' is the norm. Having never lived in the area south of the racecourse myself, I can't comment on its correct name but the district signs clearly show it as Walton. I have heard people call the 'Warbreck' area Aintree though on occasions.

London seems to be a city replete with examples of changing names for areas, often influenced by tube stations. If Arnos Grove, Bounds Green and Bowes Park are all separate areas then they are tiny.
 

Bletchleyite

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They'd be late twenties to early thirties now as this was a few years ago. I've checked with a bus driver mate of mine and he said that people only ask for 'Old Roan' if they mean the junction by the railway station and pub at Copy Lane; otherwise, 'Aintree village' is the norm. Having never lived in the area south of the racecourse myself, I can't comment on its correct name but the district signs clearly show it as Walton. I have heard people call the 'Warbreck' area Aintree though on occasions.

Ah, so about 10 years younger than me, and with their formative years coinciding with the signs being in place.

I suspect, therefore, that what I said above may be the case and it's generational. So, probably, is calling anything other than the station just "Old Roan" - to us it was always "The Old Roan" - or if you're being properly Scouse "De Old Roan" in the manner of "Deasda" or "Dealdi", depending on where you prefer to purchase the ingredients for your pot of Scouse.
 

Peter Mugridge

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A few years ago estate agents tried to get away with describing properties in Raynes Park as "West Wimbledon" - until they got splashed all over the local newspaper for that.
 

Master29

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My former city, but a good one is "Aintree Village", which is all over the road signs but does not exist in the eyes of any Liverpudlian and never has. The name for the area, as any local will tell you, is "the Old Roan", named after the station and the (now closed) adjacent pub that gave that its name. (A "roan" is a kind of horse, by the way, which appeared on the pub sign).

Curiously, the area known as the Old Roan is shown as Aintree (without the "Village") on an OS map, when locals give this name not to the Old Roan, but to the area of terraced housing found near to Aintree Station and bordering the Racecourse (the other side of which would be known as Fazakerley, about the most Scouse sounding place you can imagine, a bit like Dudley if you want a stereotypical Black Country pronunciation!). And Bing Maps thinks it's in Bootle (it's not there either!) It's quite a small area, as once you go much past the cemetery towards the city centre it becomes Walton Vale.

With regard to my current one (well, town, technically), the bit of Bletchley towards Buckingham is known on maps and signs as Far Bletchley, but nobody actually calls it that.

I think a lot of it may be down to £££ as always. Down here in the South West we have a lot of invented "Historic Town" brown signs usually done as a plug for local businesses tied to events that are either nowhere near the named area, slightly embellished or just plain untrue. It's similar with housing developments too. A house in Kings Sedgemoor Drain doesn't sound like much of a cash bucket but something like Kings Sedgemoor's Valliant might just add a few bob (No such place incidentally).

We do a lot of this type of thing in this country. You've only got to look at the Number of King Arthurs birthplaces, Avalons, Camelot's or Holy sites dotted around the country. I think in Cornwall there are around 20 Stones that supposedly held Excalibur. I've got one in my back garden. I bought it from a Nigerian Prince.
 

yorkie

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So, in your town/city, what places will you only find on maps etc, but not hear normal people refer to?
In York, I think "The Rise" is a made-up name; unless any other York residents know any different? It appears on maps but I don't think I've heard of anyone refer to this as an actual area of York. Search results just take you to a restaurant of that name in the city centre.

Another one which does not appear on many maps these days is a part of what I think should be called Woodthorpe that is occasionally referred to as "Acomb Park"; I think the name was probably invented by property developers. There is a bus stop of that name.

Confusingly there was an actual Acomb Park which ceased being called that many decades ago as it became the site of Manor School, however since the school is no longer on that site, people who want the old school site to return to being a park are reviving the old name (e.g. 'Friends of Acomb Park'). Yet these two sites are 3 miles away. I think if anyone said they were going to "Acomb Park" people would get confused and ask where they really meant.

Even more bizarrely, a search for Acomb Park on Rightmove will give you results in Holgate!
 

Bletchleyite

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I think a lot of it may be down to £££ as always. Down here in the South West we have a lot of invented "Historic Town" brown signs usually done as a plug for local businesses tied to events that are either nowhere near the named area, slightly embellished or just plain untrue.

I suspect the use of that term was indeed brought forward to make it sound more desirable.

That said, Wiki seems to suggest that the historic village was actually centred roughly where the Blue Anchor pub is (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aintree#cite_note-Farr-4), which is that side of the canal but well away from the Old Roan station end, so maybe there's a bit in both views. And to be fair my old primary school is called "Aintree Davenhill" (and always was) and not "Old Roan Davenhill". It does look like there is a rough divide in line with Winchester Avenue of stuff being called "Old Roan X" vs "Aintree X", with anything any significant distance down Copy Lane being instead called "Netherton X".

Also it seems Fazakerley station was once called Aintree (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazakerley_railway_station#CITEREFButt1995).

Nonetheless not once in my childhood did I hear the term "Aintree Village" used by anyone.

Even more confusing the large cemetary bordering Greenwich Road is called Kirkdale Cemetery!
 

telstarbox

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I lived in Blackheath in S.E. London for a few years, and close by for many more, and it's AMAZING how Blackheath has expanded in the last three decades into what were Lewisham. Lee Green. Kidbrooke, Shooters' Hill, East Greenwich, Charlton and even Deptford, that's without any new building!
And then there's Westcombe Park / The Standard.
 

LCC106

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With regard to the OP Deep Pit is definitely a legit destination. I remember seeing it on a destination blind on a Sheffield tram at Crich Tramway Village one day.
 

gg1

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The classic Black Country example is Sandwell, formed in 1974 as result of local government re-organisation. I was born a year later and growing up in the area literally no-one locally used the name and even now it's rarely used outside of references to Sandwell Council or Sandwell & Dudley station.
 

Minilad

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The classic Black Country example is Sandwell, formed in 1974 as result of local government re-organisation. I was born a year later and growing up in the area literally no-one locally used the name and even now it's rarely used outside of references to Sandwell Council or Sandwell & Dudley station.

Quite a few Villa fans use Sandwell Town as a disparaging name for West Bromwich Albion
 

najaB

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Not quite the situation described in the OP but Dundee has a very posh neighbourhood (Broughty Ferry) which borders on one of the more deprived areas (Douglas). So people who live on the edge of Douglas will now say that they come from "West Ferry".
 

tbtc

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With regard to the OP Deep Pit is definitely a legit destination. I remember seeing it on a destination blind on a Sheffield tram at Crich Tramway Village one day.

I stand corrected - I'd never heard of it (before seeing it on Google Maps).

There are some fascinating examples of fictitious places on this thread though, I'm really enjoying seeing some places (that I'd better not refer to when visiting another city, for fear of looking like a "tourist").
 

sprunt

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Plenty of examples in London where, as time goes by, an area comes to be known by its tube station not its actual name. Clerkenwell/Farringdon being the most obvious example.

Or even from the national rail station - Clapham Junction, Loughborough Junction.

Also in London, are the marketers still trying to get people to call Holborn "Midtown", which will never happen?
 

Big Tim

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In York, I think "The Rise" is a made-up name; unless any other York residents know any different? It appears on maps but I don't think I've heard of anyone refer to this as an actual area of York. Search results just take you to a restaurant of that name in the city centre.

Another one which does not appear on many maps these days is a part of what I think should be called Woodthorpe that is occasionally referred to as "Acomb Park"; I think the name was probably invented by property developers. There is a bus stop of that name.

Confusingly there was an actual Acomb Park which ceased being called that many decades ago as it became the site of Manor School, however since the school is no longer on that site, people who want the old school site to return to being a park are reviving the old name (e.g. 'Friends of Acomb Park'). Yet these two sites are 3 miles away. I think if anyone said they were going to "Acomb Park" people would get confused and ask where they really meant.

Even more bizarrely, a search for Acomb Park on Rightmove will give you results in Holgate!

I must admit, I was not aware of "The Rise" - although to be honest I'm not overly familiar with Holgate. Until I looked it up, I wondered if it was some alternative name to "Station Rise", but evidently not.

I certainly agree re: "Acomb Park" - my brother lives at the far end of Woodthorpe (Alness Drive), and the neighbouring estate is referred to as "Acomb Park" (there are large stone signs proudly stating the fact on the entry to Eden Close, which is the main vein through this area) - as you say - I believe this to be something the developers dreamt up.

As far as I know, on the East side of York (the area I am most familiar with), it's not so much "made up" suburbs, but boundaries being ridiculously stretched. I live off Stockton Lane, close to Heworth Village. However, and I guess this happens in many areas across the country, and most likely encouraged by estate agents, I have seen areas as far afield as Bell Farm Avenue to the North West and the Hull Road end of Melrosegate (both around 2 miles from the centre of Heworth), described as being in "the heart of Heworth".

That's on much the same lines as the example given by @najaB - one I am familiar with having lived in Dundee for almost a decade. I used to live in the West End - which was considered an upmarket area, but worked in a tough pub in Lochee - an area which at the time was suffering with problems associated with less affluent estates. When asked by the customers, I used to say I was from Blackness - an area lying between my home and work, as [the top end] was seen as an extension of "Little Tipperary" as the locals affectionately called Lochee!
 
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Busaholic

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And then there's Westcombe Park / The Standard.
To be fair, the Royal Standard area has always been considered part of Blackheath since Second World War at least. There were always two parts of Blackheath, the Village and the Standard, separated by the heath. The first cricket match I ever attended on my own was at the Blackheath ground used by Kent County Cricket Club, and that was in 1960. It and the rather ancient and prestigious golf club were in the Standard area. Westcombe Park is slightly different: it might have wanted the Blackheath cachet thirty or forty years ago, but Greenwich has come up so far in that time in property value terms that I'd be surprised if that didn't take precedence now. To think I turned down a vast shop/flat in Nelson Road in the centre of Greenwich in 1987 because I thought £125,000 FREEHOLD too expensive!
 

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Looking at Google Maps for Sheffield recently, I noticed a number of "suburbs" that I don't think I've ever heard to anyone refer to - "Deep Pit" / "Hillfoot" / "Spring Lawe" / "Philadelphia" / "Steel Bank" etc. There's maybe a road that shares its name with part of the name, but that's not the same as there actually being an identifiable suburb called that.

I suspect "Spring Lawe" is a Google mistake, arising from a corruption of "Spring Lane", which is the name of a tram stop in the area. I haven't seen it on any other maps, and I've looked at some old OS maps going quite a way back: Spring Lane has been there a long time, but there's no sign of "Lawe".

The others you mention all appear on old OS maps and I imagine used to be more used than they are now. Even so "Philadelphia" certainly gets some use and I've heard "Deep Pit" used occasionally as well.
 

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The interesting thread about bus destination screens (https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...amed-a-destination.200802/page-2#post-4476216) shows that sometimes a bus company has invented a name for a terminus that doesn't sit neatly in one suburb or another.
............When I used to live in Leeds (back in the days before Zoopla etc, when you had to stare in Estate Agent windows to find properties to rent/buy), everywhere north of the city seemed to be some variation of "Headingly", as far as Estate Agents were concerned. I'd see houses advertised as being in "Far Headingley", "East Headingley", "Outer Headingley", "Nether Headingley" etc because they presumably realised that people wanted the cache of a "Headingley" address (rather than admit that the place was actually one of the other suburbs like Meanwood)...........

I was born and raised in North Leeds during the 50s, 60s and 70s. Far Headingley was the area from Shaw Lane out to West Park that took in St Chad's and Beckett's Park. My memory may be at fault but I'm sure that Far Headingley was a Council Ward. As far as East, Outer and Nether are concerned they are not areas I could point to on a map.
 

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North Greenwich used to be called Blackwall Point until it was poshed up and the Dome (sorry, O2 Arena) built there. London Underground made sure the new name would stick by applying it to the Jubilee Line station.
 

Busaholic

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North Greenwich used to be called Blackwall Point until it was poshed up and the Dome (sorry, O2 Arena) built there. London Underground made sure the new name would stick by applying it to the Jubilee Line station.
You've opened a can of worms there, for sure! At the time of the opening of the original Blackwall Tunnel, the area where it emerged south of the river was regarded as east Greenwich, later expressed as East Greenwich, and I still think of it as such; old habits die hard after seventy years! North Greenwich it is not, despite the choice of name for the Jubilee Line station, because there already is (or was) a North Greenwich on the north side of the Thames, around the area where the Geenwich Foot Tunnel emerges and where the DLR first terminated, at Island Gardens. It's an ancient name, and TfL sophistry in mis-naming the tube station doesn't invalidate it.
 
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