Place Name
The Ukrainian Black Sea port city, which had been part of the Imperial Russian Empire, was an early target of the British and French Navy shortly after the declaration of hostilities, in what later became the Crimean War (October 1853 – March 1856). It was chosen after a Royal Naval frigate that had been sent to evacuate civilians under a flag of truce, was fired upon on April 6, 1854. The Russians claimed, with some justification that it had been spying and that the mercy mission was simply a cover. A few weeks later, on April 22, an Anglo-French fleet bombarded the port, setting it on fire and knocking it out of the war. The war inspired patriotic London housebuilders to name roads after major battles and its players during a feverous expansion period. Just over half a century later, in 1905, the city was the scene for sailors of the battleship Potemkin to mutiny, sparking the wider, failed uprising which foreshadowed the Russian Revolution a decade later. This road was occupied from 1889.
