14 weird and wonderful Bristol road names

With a history as long and rich as Bristol’s it’s no surprise that some of the street names date back to a previous age. Here are some of the strangest, funniest and best names from around the city.

i.               World’s End Lane

This Cliftonwood shortcut has a name that’s just a touch over the top. Though, luckily, the lane leads to White Hart Steps, rather than nuclear annihilation.

ii.              There and Back Again Lane

Tempting Hobbit references aside, the name of this bin-filled alleyway off Berkeley Square isn’t so much a name as a good piece of advice.

iii.            Granny’s Lane

Unverified reports suggest that this residential street on the edge of Hanham is a no-go zone for anyone under the age of 65.

iv.             Little Paradise

This Bedminster road was named for the orchard that once grew here. It’s now home to the UK’s most optimistically-named car park.

v.              King Dick’s Lane

An affectionate royal nickname or a tribute to pornography’s biggest trailblazer? Answers on a postcard please, St George residents.

vi.             Crusty Lane

Spare a thought for the inhabitants of this grotesquely-named street near Pill Harbour. You might want to see a doctor about that.

vii.           Happy Lane

This public path is used by joyful children on their way to Sefton Park primary school, Ashley Down, but the name might be a little optimistic.

viii.          Cook’s Folly Lane

Joseph Mallord William Turner’s ‘View down the Avon Gorge towards the Bristol Channel, with Cook’s Folly’, 1795-6  1775-1851. © Tate

This Sneyd Park cul-de-sac is named after a tower that one Maurice Cooke built and then supposedly shut himself inside, on the advice of a gypsy woman. She told him he would die before his 21st birthday, so he took to the tower to stay safe.

He made it through the entire year, but on the eve of his birthday, so the story goes, he was bitten by a snake that had come in with his firewood and died. The original tower was demolished in the 1890s but a small Victorian replacement can still be seen from Sea Walls.

ix.             Petticoat Lane

Ruined Temple Church with its leaning tower stands on this lane near Temple Meads. The whole area was named for the Knights Templar, who built an earlier church there in the 12th century.

x.              Clay Bottom

©Paul Townsend via Flickr

This area of Whitehall was home to The Crown Clay Company, who mined the nearby land for clay and created sanitary pipes and terracotta in the early 1800s.

xi.             Cheese Lane

Not a passage of Red Leicester bricks, but rather home to the world’s first shot tower, constructed in 1782, and its modern 1968 replacement. Molten lead was dropped from a height into the water below to create perfect spheres, and lead shot continued to be created using this method until 1995.

xiii.           Magpie Bottom Lane

Bristol is blessed by not one but two streets with this bizarre name – one in St George and another in Kingswood. One for sorrow, two for joy.

xiii.          Christmas Steps

Constructed in 1669 and originally called Queene Street, the origin of the current name isn’t totally clear but may come from the stained glass nativity scene depicted in The Chapel of the Three Kings of Cologne, at the top of the steps.

xiv.          Cock Road

Stop snickering at the back.