Vauxhall Road, Again

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 89499

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Shaun Hately" <drednort at a...> 
wrote:
> On 23 Jan 2004 at 21:22, Geoff Bannister wrote:
> 
> > Actually, Shaun, you've run into one of those odd English usages. 
The 
> > giveaway is the direct article... "the" Vauxhall Road. If the 
batsman 
> > had belted the ball hard enough to land in what is now Kennington 
> > Lane, which would be a feat worthy of Superman, the paper would 
have 
> > said "hit the ball into Vauxhall Road" - no article.
> 
> Actually, I am aware of that useage. It's used here as well. My 
> question is, however, that if the term is in common enough use to 
> appear multiple times in The Times, for whatever reason, is it 
> reasonable or not to suppose that a newsagent might print that term 
> on their own products? I know that does happen here, I might add - 
> I just don't know if its done in the UK.
> 
> Perhaps Riddle's Diary was sold by "Smith and Jones, The Vauxhall 
> Road Newsagents" for example? Is something like that a reasonable 
> possibility, based on your knowledge.

Geoff:
I think not. First, when Harry reads the back of the diary, it says 
he "saw the printed name of a newsagents in Vauxhall Road" - 
(COS "The Very Secret Diary" p.173 UK edition) - not "the" Vauxhall 
Road.

Referring back to the Times notes, it is probably not unusual for the 
paper to refer to "the Vauxhall Road" in the cricket notes because 
folk who knew the cricket ground would know that they were indicating 
Kenington Oval or possibly Harleyford Road, the roads along which 
spectators would walk to get to Vauxhall Cross. Reiterating what I 
said earlier, using "the" with the road name is very much an 
indicator of direction if this is not the true name of the road. If a 
business described themselves as "the Brixton Road car showroom" for 
eexample, then you would expect them to be in Brixton Road. If they 
were actaully in Acre Lane or Clapham Park Road, this would be very 
misleading to acustomer trying to find the premises. I therefore hold 
to my theory that the newsagents was in Vauxhall Road, which nowadays 
is the end of Kennington Lane east of the crossing with Kennington 
Road.

Digressing for a moment to Carolyn's comments in 89406, I hope to try 
to obtain a little bit more information on the question of the 
orphanage over the weekend. One of our church memebrs was on the 
staff at Spurgeon's College for many years and has already helped me 
with one or two points, so I shall do some more arm-twisting! 

Watch out, Tom, we're on your tail again.

:-)