A councillor has welcomed a change of heart that means a new road on the site of the former Imperial Group tobacco factory in South Bristol will be named after an old cigarette brand. Tory Cllr Richard Eddy had slammed the original idea to call the 70-home estate “Crox View” as “ridiculous” because that name comes from an ancient woodland obscured from the incoming residents’ view by the giant Imperial Park retail centre in Bishopsworth.
He said it failed to reflect the area’s recent industrial past and challenged developers Curo housing association to come up with a “grittier” title befitting Bristol and its heritage. Now, Curo has accepted an alternative suggestion of Navy Cut Road, after the famous brand of Imperial cigarettes.
Bishopsworth ward Cllr Eddy said: “I’m delighted that both Curo Homes and Bristol City Council’s street-naming team listened positively to my views and are now proposing a far more appropriate street name.” He said council officers concluded that his initial request to give the road an “Imperial” prefix or name it after former members of the Wills family, who founded the city’s tobacco trade, could cause confusion with several existing Bristol streets that already have them.
Read more: South Bristol councillor blasts "ridiculous" proposed new street name at former tobacco factory
But Cllr Eddy said the team’s idea to come up with a name based on a tobacco brand was “novel” and “inspired” and linked directly with the location’s history. Imperial Group moved its tobacco factory to the site from Bedminster in 1974 until its closure in 1990 and demolition six years later to make way for the retail centre and hundreds of flats and houses.
Curo is building 70 affordable homes on the former factory’s last vacant plot, facing the large Hengrove roundabout. Council officers came up with three other suggestions, all based on the company’s old cigarette brands – Strand Road, Passing Clouds Road and Gold Flake Road – but both Cllr Eddy and the housing association have accepted the one in honour of Navy Cut.
The original proposal, Crox View, would have been named after Crox Bottom, a woodland in a steep valley between Headley Park and Imperial Park, which can be seen only from the air.
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