Dorset Lane (Avenue)

Originally named Dispensary Lane, the street was renamed Dorset Avenue in 1902 at the request of the owner of the properties on the lane, Robert White, 1 North Frederick Street.

It seems that Dispensary Lane had ‘acquired a very undesirable reputation, in consequence of which it is found impossible to induce a good class of tenants to live in the place’.¹

The Committee agreed with Mr White that the change of name would ‘have the effect of wiping out the unfavourable notoriety at present attaching to the locality’.

The change was approved by the City Council, against the opposition of some members, on 5 May 1902.²

The laneway is unnamed on the OS 6”, but the 25”, surveyed in 1907, says ‘Dorset Lane’, the name by which it is still known.³

(I’m assuming that the lane in question is the one that runs from Sherrard Street to Dorset Street.)

1. Reports 1902/50. ↩︎
2. Minutes 1902/267. ↩︎
3. OS 25”, 1911. ↩︎