Was it common practice in Victorian London or other Western European cities to name locations as places where fictional characters lived and acted?
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There are a number of streets in the UK, and I'm sure that there are in other countries too, that are named after literary characters. For example the town of South Woodham Ferrers, in Essex has a number of streets named after characters from Lord of the Rings. E.g.
And characters from several other books do occasionally become street names - I believe that there are a number of D'Arcy Streets/Drives etc.
That said though, I would not say that this is, or was, an especially common practice. Most councils publish, via their websites, a street-naming guide or policy that outlines the process of naming and renaming streets. As an example, Wiltshire Council's street naming policy can be found here, with the guidrlines for street naming on page 9. This policy does not mention street names based on literary characters - so it is not prohibited but if it were a common practice I believe it would be mentioned.
Edits:
I've done some further research on the subject matter and it does appear that the practice is pretty rare. I've only found a couple of other examples of streets being named after a character.
The closest is named after another of Charles Dickens' characters, Philip Pirrip. This example is Pirrip Close, Gravesend. Pip was supposed to have lived in the marsh area of Kent, some 20 miles from the sea. The street in Gravesend is in Kent and is around 13 miles from the sea as the crow flies.
The other example I could find was Little Dorrit Park and Little Dorrit Court. Little Dorrit is a character (Amy) in the book/series of the same name, once again written by Charles Dickens. The court and the park and both situated near where Marshalsea Debtors Prison was situated.
Other than that I struggled to find examples - one area I looked at closely was Bath, a town where Jane Austen lived for a period and where two of the books she wrote took place - however I could find no examples where any of her characters were memorialised as a street name.
So I think answer to the question that that it's something that's done infrequently, only in cases when the fictional character and/or writer is exceptionally well known. Dickens was one of most popular writers in history relative to his time, and his stories and characters are well known and beloved the world over - he is the exception, not the rule.
Upvote:3
In Poland, where I live, there are also many streets that are named after fictional characters. Usually, this practice dates for about 30 years.
The Winnie-the-Pooh St. in Warsaw (Ulica Kubusia Puchatka) dates 1950s. I can't find the source now, but I read that it was the first street in Poland to be named after a fictional character.
There are now lots streets in Warsaw, in new districts, that are named after non existing or legendary persons. For example, in this region there are some streets after Henryk Sienkiewicz's characters: Jana Skrzetuskiego, Kmicica and MichaΕa WoΕodyjowskiego. Wernyhora is also not certainly authentic person.
However, I've never found a street that was named after fictional eg. region, river etc.
UPDATE
There is a famous, semi-grotesque tv series, dated in 1980s., in fact anti-communist, but made with trick, so censorship allowed it, which is called "Alternatywy 4". This is some kind of wordplay, because the action takes place in residential building placed on the Alternative Street in Warsaw, building number 4. The address was fictional, but in 2006 the real building with the address Alternatywy 4 was erected in Warsaw (Google Maps). The building is modern-style, and does not however look similar in any way to the "original" one from the TV series.
Probably some bars or cafes are named after places from fiction, where they were to exist, but I don't know any example of such practice for streets (but it does not mean there aren't any).
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