Place Name
Takes its name from the largest of the Channel Islands. It became part of the Duchy of Normandy in 933, linking its destiny to both France and England. When William the Conqueror became King of England in 1066, Jersey, along with the other Channel Islands, remained a possession of the English Crown despite being geographically closer to France. The meaning behind the name of island is uncertain, but one theory is that it comes from a personal name Geirr with the -ey meaning island, so Geirr’s Island. This is one of ten streets running north-south sandwiched between Links Road and Seely Road which were named after consecutive letters of the alphabet running from A to J. They were laid out on Tooting Golf Course around the 1910s. Each named for a place in Britain, and most, but not all, after seaside towns. Alphabet streets were a popular device of developers when naming large estates, allowing them to pick traditional names that were popular with home buyers and create a uniformity, without having to put too much effort in.
