Interesting case study of the commercialisation of urban place names

You might be interested in this story about the commodification of urban naming rights which appeared in the UK over the summer.  The Conservative group on the London Assembly put forward a proposal for greater commercial sponsorship of the names of public transport stops (particularly Underground stations) as a way of holding fares down.  One of their arguments was that the practice was increasingly widespread in other global cities, so why not London.  You can find their report here:  http://glaconservatives.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Untapped-Resource.pdf

Press coverage of the issue was generally more ambivalent and the Mayor of London has said that he’s not convinced.  So, for the time being at least, it doesn’t look like anything is going to happen.

Reposted from: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=URBAN-PLACE-NAMES;a92a011b.1309