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Names chosen for development areas and streets honour major academic figures.

Inspiration will be taken from the physical or geographical features of the landscape or people who have a strong connection with the University or the development site.

Roger Taylor, Project Director for the North West Cambridge Development .

Place names have been chosen for parts of the North West Cambridge Development site – and the University is looking for the public’s ideas on more names.
The NWCD team is seeking input of staff, residents and students in its aim to recognise the local landscape and those people who have a strong connection to the University or the site.
Names already chosen include one for the new local centre, part of the North West Cambridge Development, which will be known as Eddington.
This honours the pre‐eminent astronomer, mathematician and physicist, Sir Arthur Eddington, whose observations confirmed some key predictions of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and led to its general acceptance. He was a Cambridge alumnus and resident in the local area in the early part of the twentieth century.
He also lived for a time in the Gravel Hill Farmhouse, on the North West Cambridge Development site. Roger Taylor, Project Director for the North West Cambridge Development said: “Identifying place names for the development is not an easy task. We are grateful to our local community who, through consultation, have informed our approach to naming.
“Naming of areas and streets will be based on natural naming, which means that inspiration will be taken from the physical or geographical features of the landscape or people who have a strong connection with the University or the development site.
“Natural naming grounds the new development within its location, adding to the sense of place that we are creating.”
Other areas on the development site that have been named include Brook Leys, Ridgeway Village, Gravel Hill, and Storey’s Field (see map and key for details. Click on map for larger view).

Over the coming 12 months, street names will be allocated to the Development site.
Suggestions from the local community, which follow the principles of natural naming, can be submitted by completing a short online survey on www.nwcambridge.co.uk/consultation-street-naming.php#.U6qIrZRdWSo.
Two female scientists, Ada Lovelace and Philippa Fawcett, have also been honoured with street names on the West Cambridge site - Philippa Fawcett Drive and Ada Lovelace Road.
Ada Lovelace was a Victorian mathematician, daughter of poet Lord Byron, who worked for inventor Charles Babbage on his Analytical Engine. In 1842 she wrote an algorithm for the engine, for which she is credited as being the first computer programmer.
Philippa Fawcett was a student at Newnham College and scored the highest mark of all the candidates for the Mathematical Tripos in 1890. She was placed `above the Senior Wrangler' (that is, above the top first) because women were not then eligible for the Cambridge BA degree and therefore could not be classed as Wranglers.
 

Published

25 June 2014

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A Street Sign