london Fire

[michael sam wild]

The tragic fire in a block of flats in London the other day ewas in a block called Lachenal.. does anyone know why it was so named?

[Stephen Chambers]

Not Lachenal, but Lakanal, and the address being Sceaux Gardens Estate suggests that the flats may be named after the Lycée et Collège Lakanal at Sceaux (France), with which I suspect the former London Borough of Camberwell (who built the Estate in 1960) may once have been twinned (seeing that there's also an avenue Camberwell in Sceaux).

 

edited to add: In fact all the blocks on the Estate are named after famous French people - Colbert, Fontenelle, Mistral, Lakanal, Marie Curie, Florian, Racine and Voltaire.

Edited July 6, 2009 by Stephen Chambers

[Patrick King]

Not Lachenal, but Lakanal, and the address being Sceaux Gardens Estate suggests that the flats may be named after the Lycée et Collège Lakanal at Sceaux (France), with which I suspect the former London Borough of Camberwell (who built the Estate in 1960) may once have been twinned (seeing that there's also an avenue Camberwell in Sceaux).

 

edited to add: In fact all the blocks on the Estate are named after famous French people - Colbert, Fontenelle, Mistral, Lakanal, Marie Curie, Florian, Racine and Voltaire.

... .... wow; all I can say that it's good to talk to people on a site based on one subject, the concertina, and learn lots; and when I say lots... I mean lots.

 

Cheers,

Patrick

 

BTW- I think I heard something about it on the news over here in Oz, but it's probably not what I'm thinking/heard about.

Edited July 8, 2009 by Patrick King