Anger over stealth bid to change history

Firms, developers and council officials have been accused of trying to rewrite history to exploit the growing popularity of the North Laine area near the station.

The name South Lanes has been sneaking into planning applications and business addresses for companies setting up in the area known as The Lanes for more than a century.

Some fear businesses are trying to merge the two areas.

Tory councillor Averil Older, a former guide at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, was concerned enough to ask city council chief executive David Panter if there had been an official change of policy.

Mr Panter replied: "There is no hidden agenda on this in terms of any name change."

Coun Older was concerned after seeing a massage business mentioned in The Argus last week give its address in Meeting House Lane as the South Lanes.

She said: "I have also seen it on a recent licensing application and I also saw Fabrica in Duke Street last year mentioned in a council leaflet as being in the South Lanes.

"Some time ago, one of the pubs also said it was in the South Lanes.

"I want to know whether this name change is being promoted by the council. Are we now changing our city's history and who took this decision?

"Anyone who doesn't know the difference between The Lanes and the North Laine shouldn't be living here.

"I am worried developers of the Post Office site in Ship Street will say it is in the South Lanes.

"I think someone could be trying to get commercial advantage out of this but I don't know who it is.

"I have seen South Lanes written several times, once on a European update issued by the council.

"The Lanes were the old fishermen's cottages and have been called that for years."

The Lanes are pedestrianised alleys in the heart of the old town of Brighton and are a prime tourist draw, the emphasis switching in recent years from antique shops to bars, restaurants and jewellery shops.

Many of the houses in North Laine were built for railway workers in the nineteenth century.

Much of the area was blighted by a road scheme in the early Seventies but it has since become fashionable as a place to live and its quirky shops make it a bohemian quarter rivalling The Lanes in popularity.

The word Laine derives from Anglo Saxon meaning loan or lease and was a local term for open arable fields.

The North Laine area east of Queen's Road was given its name when the district became a conservation area in 1977.

The Lanes has long been a famous name in Brighton and many want to keep it that way.

Martin McGowan, manager of the Black Lion pub in Black Lion Street, said: "It's such a famous part of Brighton, it would be a shame to start calling it the South Lanes.

"You can see why people might see the North Laine as a natural extension of The Lanes but they are entirely different."

Jo Kirkbride, an assistant at the Watering Whole, a holistic therapist in Meeting House Lane which gives its address on leaflets as the South Lanes, said: "I have always known it as the South Lanes since I arrived here three years ago.

"All my friends refer to it as the South Lanes. It's easier if you are directing someone to a certain shop and they don't know the area. I didn't even know it was wrong."

Outside the Font and Firkin there is a council public entertainments licence sign which refers to the pub's address as the South Lanes.

Barman Alec Sneidle, 24, said:

"It has always been the South Lanes to me but I'm not from Brighton."

A council spokesman said: "The notice at the Firkin is probably a misconception by an officer at the council shared by a lot of residents.

"There is no reason to call it the South Lanes in relation to the North Laine because the two places are completely different."

Joy Neale and Sue Winter work at The Lanes jewellers in Meeting House Lane and have just changed the shop name from Antiquities.

Joy said: "The Lanes is The Lanes and always has been.

"You can't change the name now - it goes back hundreds of years."

Sue Pearson, at the Teddy Bear Shop in Brighton Square, said: "The Lanes are internationally renowned.

"People come from all over the world to visit our shop in The Lanes.

"They get our address from the web site so it would confuse people to change it now."

Mike Tack, of clothes shop Big and Tall in Nile Pavilions, said: "I'm amazed. This is the first I've heard of it being the South Lanes.

"We were here first. It has been called that however far you go back in history but when my father had a shop in Gardner Street 30 years ago it was never called the North Laine."

Mark Nelson, of the First Light photographic gallery in Nile Street, pointed out: "Anyone who knows anything knows the distinction between the two areas because there are signs."

Green convenor Keith Taylor said: "Calling the Lanes the South Lanes is like calling the Palace Pier Brighton Pier. There's no reason for the change."