Place Name
This was laid out in 1829 and named in honour of Robert Banks Jenkinson (June 7, 1770 – December 4, 1828), 2nd Earl of Liverpool, who served as Tory Prime Minister between 1812 and 1827. During his tenure he called for a crackdown on protests to maintain order following the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. That said, he sought compromise on the issue of Catholic emancipation, and ended the death penalty for many minor offences. He also managed to negotiate the difficult period when George III was incapacitated, and the extravagant Prince Regent headed the monarchy. Liverpool died a few months after retiring from office. The street and a large part of the station were built on the original site of the priory and hospital of St Mary of Bethlehem, which later became known as Bedlam. In March 2024, the City of London Corporation announced it was planning to rename a small section of the road, a square immediately outside Liverpool Street Station in honour of Sir Nicholas Winton, the stockbroker turned activist who was pivotal in setting up Kindertransport, saving 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia, as war loomed in the late 1930s. Liverpool Street Station was the main place of arrival and the meeting point for the children, their sponsors and eventual foster families. Laurence Winton, Sir Nicholas’s grandson and a trustee of his Memorial Trust, said: “We are truly grateful for this initiative, which will serve as a lasting tribute to Sir Nicholas Winton’s humanitarian efforts. We believe that a permanent renaming will not only honour his legacy but will serve as an educational landmark. It will remind passers-by of the virtues of compassion and bravery, and the significant impact one individual can make in the lives of many.”
