Pictured, above, are Chris Naylor, Pam White, Pat Callaghan and Lazzaro Pietragnoli in Dumpton Place
Published: 22 March, 2012
by DAN CARRIER

IT is a quiet, cobbled dead-end street in Primrose Hill, once used as an access route for the Victorian railways to top up steam trains with water.

But now little old Dumpton Place is at the centre of an extraordinary furore – and all over the fact it has a less than floral street name.

The short street, off Gloucester Avenue, will soon have its name changed at the request of a property developer building a new luxury estate at the end of the street.

The project involves creating four-bedroom houses, which are being marketed at around £2.5m. The estate agents are labelling the homes as being situated in Jasmin Mews.

Developers Cubic Ltd have already been granted permission by the Town Hall to rid the map of the word ‘Dumpton’. But Primrose Hill Conservation Area Advisory Committee vice chairwoman Pam White is among several objectors who want the council to think again.

She said: “We are very upset because although this road is a very short one it has been known historically as Dumpton Place for many years and we are attached to it. Did the property developer not like the idea of selling houses adjacent to this street name so he asked Camden to dump Dumpton Place? If the name is to be changed, calling it Jasmin Mews is very problematical. First, it is not a mews, secondly Jasmin is misspelt, and thirdly the new proposed name has no connection with this historic conservation area.”

The committee has now called on the Town Hall to halt the change on the grounds that not enough people in the area were consulted over the possible switch.

Ms White added: “We have asked Camden to review the decision and undertake a proper consultation to rename this street.

They only consulted very few houses within a 50-metre radius and none of the neighbourhood bodies such as the Conservation Area Advisory Committee or the PH Community Association.

“We do not understand why the decision to rename this street has been taken on a commercial company’s request.”

The committee has even offered some alternative names: Whittlebury Place or Whittlebury Terrace has been proposed, as Whittlebury Hall in Northamptonshire was where Charles Fitzroy, the third Lord Southampton, lived. He owned all of Primrose Hill up until the 1840s.

Ms White’s views have been backed by two ward councillors Lib-Dem Chris Naylor and Labour’s Pat Callaghan.

A spokesman at Cubic Building Surveying Ltd said they had applied for a name change after discussing Dumpton Place with agents who would be marketing their properties.

He added: “Everyone we spoke to did not like Dumpton Place. It was when we were first looking at it and talking with agents that we got the idea that it was not ideal.”

The spokesman added that they had asked the council previously to rename a nearby development Sunny Mews – and when they had offered up traditional names linked to the area’s heritage they had been discouraged by the Town Hall. This was on the basis that emergency services worried about roads being confused when they were too similar to existing roads.

“We felt it would be better to go for a traditional name but as we’d asked them before and not been successful, we decided on Jasmin Mews,” the spokesman added.