Place Name
This wasn’t the first name change for the road. It was originally called Frederick’s Road which ran from Victoria Dock Road to the now vanished Marten Road, which is roughly where Goldwing Close is today. By 1951 Frederick’s Road had been shortened and renamed, now Bridgeland Road. Like its predecessor it ran from Victoria Dock Road but ended at Clever Road (now also gone). Redevelopment in the 1980s saw the road cut in two and the section running between Coolfin Road and Hooper Road named in honour of the then imprisoned anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela (July 18, 1918 – December 5, 2013). Mandela would go on to become South Africa’s first black president, after the African National Congress (ANC) swept to power ending decades of centrally imposed Apartheid and the disenfranchisement of the majority of the people. Mandela became a powerful global symbol in the fight against the racist system and a totem for many Labour councils to express their contempt for white minority rule.
