Names of Chennai streets have long fascinated me. It is quite well known that Kennedy Street (next to St. Isabel’s Hospital) was originally known as Kannadiga Street. Long ago, Kannadigas lived in this street and they were mostly buttermilk sellers, carrying pots of butter milk on their heads with a kind of blanket round them to prptect them from early morning cold. Poor President Kennedy had nothing to do with this street.

The English gave their names to many roads in Chennai. Some of them may have been renamed. The English, I must say, do have rather funny surnames. Don’t expect to buy flowers on Flowers Road (Kilpauk), or bread and cakes on Baker’s Road, Hunter’s Road has nothing to do with hunting and Coats Road (T’Nagar) has nothing to do with the sale of coats. If you are in search of a cook you will not find one on Cook’s Road (Ayanavaram), and if you want to buy some timber you will be disappointed if you go to Wood’s Road. And there is a Powder Mill Road in Grey Nagar and a Karuneeswarar Pagoda Street in Mylapore. Austin Flowers, George Baker, James R. Coats, an engineer in the Corporation of Madras, and Mr.Hunter lent their names to these roads and streets.

Some intriguing queries: Did Brick Kiln Road have a kiln at one time? And who was Nancy of Nancy Street, Purasawalkam? How did Dooming Street (Santhome) get its name? Santhome is famous for its Cathedral but Dooming reminds us of Doomsday. Porche’s Road is a misspelling for Portuguese Road!

I live on Eldam’s Road and was always amused to read the road’s name in Tamil which reads as Yeldams Road. Imagine my surprise when I found that the Tamil spelling was the right one and the road should be spelled Yeldam’s Road named after Mr. Yeldam, Mayor of Madras in 1801!

A word about the streets of Chennai; they are named after people, some of them long departed from this world. The streets are so filthy, full of garbage and rubble that the people after whom they have been named must be turning in their graves. I wish the descendants would honour the memory of the dead by getting the streets cleaned regularly. As for those living, after whom the streets have been named, I would be ashamed to have one named after me.

What’s in a name? A street would smell as foul even if called by any other name.

P.S. This article is written with an apology to Sriram V. for his very well researched article in Madras Musings about Madras Street names.