[Talk-GB] OS Opendata names copied in Harrow

[Steve Doerr]

On 18/05/2011 13:01, Andrew wrote:
> An editor has cleared the OSL difference analysis in the London Borough of
> Harrow (http://www.itoworld.com/product/data/osm_analysis/area?name=Harrow)
> with the unusually low score of 5 not:names out of 1800. As someone who used
> to live in the area, I find some of the names that were put onto the map
> surpising, for instance the road I’ve always known as Paines Lane
> (http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/8609572). When I asked the editor
> concerned where the names had come from I was told that the names had come
> from OS Opendata and sometimes visits to the streets. Paines Lane may not have
> been one of the streets the editor visited because it is spelt that way on all
> of its street signs.

Where the OS has an apostrophe and street-signs don't, I generally 
assume the apostrophized version is a valid alternative and tag it as 
alt_name. I suspect exhaustive historical research would prove the OS to 
be correct in most cases and show that the highway authority is just 
being lazy in leaving the apostrophe out. It may be because I am a 
linguist, but I cannot bring myself to declare such forms as ST JOHN'S 
ROAD to be incorrect when they make much more sense grammatically. (I 
did make an exception for PEPY'S ROAD, which seemed unlikely to be 
correct.) Mind you, no one in London would now write Arno's Grove for 
Arnos Grove, even though it's historically correct (originally Arnold's 
Grove, apparently).

-- 
Steve