Richmond Road is named in reference to Richmond in London. This is made obvious by the many roads in the area which refer to parts of the capital:
- Kensington Road
- Westminster Road
- Kingsland Road – which is a comparatively obscure area in Dalston 1
- Bedford Road and Russell Road – which, I think, both refer to the squares in Bloomsbury
- West End Road
- Finchley Road
- Highbury Avenue – Highbury being infamous as the old home of Arsenal football club, otherwise known as ‘the Library’
….and possibly also Coldharbour Lane, which is a long and reasonably well known road between Camberwell and Brixton.
I vaguely remember seeing a reference to this area of Salisbury being called something like ‘Railway town’, or similar, because it was primarily built for and occupied by railway workers. If this is correct, it may be that the London inspied names are a reference to the destination of one of the significant lines. Slightly more of a stretch, Clifton Road in the same area *could* be a reference to the Bristol line.
I’ve not been able to find the reference to ‘Railway Town’, in any case.
Update: Richmond Road is the 42nd most popular street name in the UK, according to the Halifax Building Society 2
Footnotes
- Kingsland, London – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [↩]
- Halifax Reveals The UK’s Top 50 Street Names [↩]
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