Commemorating Our Outstanding Citizens
Through "Streets of Honour"

The Streets of Honour Nomination Program is currently accepting nominations of exemplary London citizens for possible future street names use. The ‘Street Naming – Streets of Honour’ Program was created to recognize the number of London citizens who have served our community well over the years. By naming a City street in their honour, we hope to promote public awareness of the individual and show our appreciation for their outstanding contributions. Expanded Criteria In January of 2006, City Council broadened its  “Street Naming – Streets of Honour “Policy 25(9) to include: London’s War Dead; War Veterans - being a person who served in a war, in the Armed Forces, or as a peacekeeper who served with distinction, but is not necessarily deceased and is from the City of London. Nominations must be submitted by a Veteran’s Organization. Police, Fire and Emergency Services personnel who died in service; Police, Fire and Emergency Services personnel who did not lose their lives in action, and are retired and/or deceased; City of London employees, City Council, and Committee members who have served the City for a period of 25 years or more and are retired and/or deceased; and Honourees from the Mayor’s Honour List All nominations must include a letter of support from the applicable branch of service. May 2, 2008 is the deadline for submitting the nomination form to the Planning Division. Once submitted, nominations will be reviewed by a committee, Approved names will then be placed on a Reserve list, to be selected from on an as-needed basis when new City streets are created. A complete listing of the existing Streets of Honour within the city limits can be viewed on our interactive CityMap. Select Streets of Honour from the legend under Points of Interest and select the street from the drop down menu. Click the “Find It” button. Using the identify tab along the top of the map, click on the highlighted street and general information about the honoured individual will appear. To obtain more specific information about the individual, simply click on their name and a biography and photograph will appear.

History

The original Council Policy 25(9) “Street Naming – Deceased Service People” was adopted in December 1989. This policy encouraged the naming of new streets after London residents who lost their lives in action while serving for the Armed Forces, City Police or Fire Department. In 2007, approximately 80 streets within the city limits had been named and identified under the Deceased Service People policy.

These streets are identified by the use of poppy symbol for Armed Forces individuals, and a tree symbol for Police and Firefighter individuals.
 

How does a new street get named?

The naming of new streets follows a general procedure conducted by the Planning Division as part of the Planning and Development Department.

In brief, during the subdivision review process new street names are submitted to the Planning Division by the developer for approval. All proposed street names, including approved names on the "Streets Of Honour" reserve list maintained by the Planning Division, are checked against existing street names for duplication, including similar sounding names and similar spelling. A computerized sound check program is used to assist in this task. This precaution is taken to avoid confusion in cases of emergency - to help ensure accurate response from police, fire and ambulance services. It is also the practice of the Planning Division to track and compare proposed names with surrounding municipalities, to avoid creating confusion for emergency services, as the central ambulance dispatch covers more than London and Middlesex.

Qualified street names are then circulated by the Planning Division to the Municipal Addressing Advisory Group (MAAG) for input. MAAG consists of one or more representatives each from Fire, Police, Central Ambulance, Building Division, Engineering Department and Planning Division. Ultimately the decision belongs to the General Manager of Planning and Development.

The approved street names are maintained in a secured corporate City Street Name Index data base. This data base is used throughout the Corporation of the City of London for a variety of purposes. Upon registration of the plan of subdivision the street name(s) become sanctioned as official street names.

For additional information regarding nomination submissions and Streets of Honour, please contact the Planning Division at 519 661-4980 or .