Archway or Whittington? Tube station debate set to go global

AS regular readers of this newspaper know, Archway resident Walter Roberts wants Archway Station to be renamed after Dick Whittington. Now his lengthy one-man campaign is set to receive a wider airing after I mentioned it on BBC Radio London s Breakfast S

AS regular readers of this newspaper know, Archway resident Walter Roberts wants Archway Station to be renamed after Dick Whittington. Now his lengthy one-man campaign is set to receive a wider airing after I mentioned it on BBC Radio London's Breakfast Show yesterday. Hosts Paul Ross and JoAnne Good were really interested in the idea, so expect to hear Walter making his case any day now on a radio near you.

I'll also have an opportunity to bend current mayor Boris Johnson's ear about the Whittington campaign next Tuesday night, so you never know where this may all end up. The Ham&High has supported many worthy campaigns over the years, but I don't think we've ever helped to re-name a Tube station.

Walter has also been campaining to have a statue of the city's first mayor commissioned on Highgate Hill, widely believed to be Whittington's famous 'turning point'. Interestingly, a beautifully statue of Whittington, sculpted by Joseph Carew in 1824, was lost to the area and removed to East Grinstead when the Whittington Almhouse was demolished on Highgate Hill. So there is a precedent, as they say...

Geoff Martin

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