It was not until the commencement of the present century that inconvenience was apparently felt from the want of any distinguishing names of streets, or numbers to houses, either in London or provincial towns; the first Act of Parliament on the subject being one passed in the year 1819, which gave powers to vestries and district boards to put up the names of streets, and even then for some considerable period afterwards houses or premises were not marked with numbers, but with distinguishing trade signs or names.

The Towns Improvement Clauses Act 1847, however, contains the following clauses which are incorporated with the Public Health Act 1875, by the 160th section of that act:

“The commissioners shall from time to time cause the houses and buildings in all or any of the streets[122] to be marked with numbers as they think fit, and shall cause to be put up or painted on a conspicuous part of some house, building or place at or near each end, corner, or entrance of every such street the name by which such street is to be known; and every person who destroys, pulls down, or defaces any such number or name, or puts up any number or name different from the number or name put up by the commissioners, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 40s. for every such offence” (10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, sec. 64).

“The occupiers of houses and other buildings in the streets shall mark their houses with such numbers as the commissioners approve of, and shall renew such numbers as often as they become obliterated, or defaced; and every such occupier who fails within one week after notice for that purpose from the commissioners to mark his house with a number approved of by the commissioners, or to renew such number when obliterated, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 40s.; and the commissioners shall cause such numbers to be marked or to be renewed as the case may require, and the expense thereof shall be repaid to them by such occupier, and shall be recoverable as damages” (10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, s. 65).

Some difference even now exists as to the manner in which streets are named, there being considerable diversity in the sizes, colours, and materials of the name plates, as well as in the spaces allowed for the letters. The following list is given to show how this diversity existed in the metropolis even so late as the year 1870.

Table taken from a “Memorandum by the Superintending Architect of the Metropolitan Board of Works, relative to the enforcement of the Law regulating the naming of Streets and numbering of Houses in the Metropolis” (1871):

And to this table are added the words “Some names are completely hidden by vines, names given for ‘streets’ are put up as ‘roads.’” Since this table was prepared however, the confusion has been rectified by the energetic action of the Metropolitan Board of Works.

It is no doubt essential that for postal, telegraphic, and social reasons there should be uniformity in the manner in which the naming and numbering of streets is carried out, and the following particulars and suggestions may be of use.

Names of streets should be marked up in such a manner as to be legible both by day and lamp light, and the materials of which the name-plates are composed should be of sufficient strength to prevent any damage accruing to them from stone-throwing or other wilful or accidental injury, or from the action of changes of temperature or climatic influences of any kind, and the following list is given descriptive of some of the modern methods of effecting this:

Minton’s China Tiles.

—These are white glazed china tiles 6 inches square, on which either blue or black letters are burnt in, one letter on each tile (except in the case of St. which is on one tile); they are fixed by chasing them into walls of buildings, and setting them in cement. They are the best description of name-plate with which I am acquainted, their cost being only 6d. each, with the additional advantages of being not easily broken, they can be removed and re-used with facility, weather has no effect upon them, and they require no attention whatever after they are once fixed.

Cast-iron Plates with Embossed Letters.

—These are generally painted with a white ground, and black letters; they are liable to become broken, and as they are fixed with screws these rust through in course of time, when the plate may suddenly fall in a dangerous manner into the street; another disadvantage is that they require to be painted about once every three years.

Painted Names on Walls of Buildings.

—This method requires no special mention; it is an economical plan and is more adopted than any other, but the letters must be painted every three years at least, and they are apt to be defaced if the premises are painted by the owner or occupier.

Enamelled Iron Plates.

—These look very well, but they are apt to get loose, and a blow from a stone will shiver them.

Wooden or Metal Figures cut out and fastened on to Boards or against Walls.

—The same objection holds good with this method as with others of the same description, the fastenings fail in time, and the name disappears.

Enamelled Glass Tablets in Street Lamps.

—This is an excellent method of recent introduction, and has many advantages. The name can be seen very plainly either by day or night, no private premises have to be interfered with in fixing them,[123] a uniformity of position or “where to look” for the name of the street is secured, and there is no limit to the number of times the name may be repeated.

Where the names of streets are placed against buildings the letters which compose the name should not be less than 4 inches in height by 2 inches in breadth, with a space between each letter of not less than 1 inch; a light colour should always where practicable be used for the back ground, and black or blue for the letters. One great objection to painted letters is that they must be frequently repainted, and in order to do this, ladders have to be raised against the building, which the occupiers naturally object to without previous notice: it is always very annoying to any citizen to have the head of a painter appearing outside his bed-room window at any time, and more especially at an inconvenient hour in the morning.

In selecting names for streets it is very important that they should not be duplicated in a town, and also that there should be some sense in their nomenclature; generally some local association can be found with a family or historical name which is suitable for the street. Nothing is more ridiculous than to see such names as Bath Street or York Road given to streets which have as much association with such places as with Jericho.

The street having been properly and conspicuously named, the next point to consider is that of the manner in which it shall be numbered, there being three methods in vogue by which this can be effected.

(1.) By allotting even numbers on one side of the street and odd numbers on the other side.

(2.) By allotting consecutive numbers up one side of the street, and down the other side.

(3.) By allotting corresponding numbers to both sides of the street, which are distinguished by a prefix of north and south, or east and west, as the case may require.

The first is by far the best method to pursue, for the following reasons:

If the street is ever extended after being numbered, the sequence is in no way disturbed. By this method any house can be more easily found, as on reference to a directory it will at once be seen at which end of the street it is situated. If the second method had been adopted this would be impossible, except for the first few numbers, and where a street is of considerable length with branch streets running into it this is of the greatest importance. It is the best method also for the Post-Office officials, as it facilitates the district sorting of the letters.

Giving each side of the street distinctive prefixes to its name, such as north and south, &c., is evidently a bad plan, and leads to much confusion.

In allotting numbers to premises in a street, if it has been already numbered care should be taken to disturb existing numbers as little as possible, for an altered number involves considerable expense as well as inconvenience to the occupier of business or trade premises, owing to the necessity of altering bill heads, letter paper, &c., and sometimes even considerable trouble and expense in order to secure the validity of the title.

Avoid numbering from right to left, and take care to allot sufficient numbers to vacant spaces which may eventually be built upon, and to do this the length of frontage may be divided into such lengths as (in the surveyor’s judgment) will represent the new frontages. In any case it is better to have too many numbers in a street than too few, and large premises, and any public or other buildings which may be removed, and other buildings substituted should have numbers allotted to them, although it will not be necessary to serve the notices to have them affixed. Most large shops prefer to have more than one number, although I have heard the rather far-fetched contention urged, that more than one number means extra rating.

Considerable care must be exercised to ensure that no separate premises are passed over in allotting the numbers, often only a door or side passage denoting the existence of another claimant for a number. Nothing looks worse in a freshly numbered street than to see such numbers as 37A or 96¹/2 placed upon premises that should have had a distinct numeral, and thus showing that they must have been left out.

The manner in which streets are numbered is generally as follows:

The town surveyor or one of his assistants walks through the street, and with a piece of chalk legibly marks each house with its correct number, taking care to observe the precautions I have enumerated; having done this throughout its entire length, these numbers must be entered in a book with the name of the occupier written opposite to the number. Upon returning to the office the surveyor must then fill up and serve the necessary notice upon each of these occupiers, the following being given as a specimen of such notice:

In the event of the old number with which any premises were marked not being obliterated by the occupier, the following notice may be served:

Of course, if nothing is done after service of this second notice, it only remains to summon the offender as provided by the sections of the Act, which I have given in the early part of this chapter.