There is much of absorbing interest to be found in a study of the street names of towns. Not only can it lead to the uncovering of much of the history of the town itself but it unveils some of those more familiar and intimate circumstances which go so far towards creating that sentimental attachment people have for some particular centre.
Municipal records are largely silent about any authority or responsibility for street naming; possibly this was left to the various surveyors who laid out the town and its extensions. Then the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 upset the town’s normal administration and left its records in confusion. Nevertheless it does seem that the original naming of the earliest streets did follow some method or planned approach.
Boundary Road – one of the town’s oldest streets, if not the oldest. Its name derives from the fact that it was the western boundary-line of the farm, Dundee, 300 acres of which were set aside in 1882 for a township called Dundee Proper.
The four founders of this new town were Peter Smith (the owner of the farm Dundee); his eldest son, William Craighead Smith; a son-in-law, Dugald Macphail; and Charles George Willson, an early businessman and first mayore of the town.
The first streets named with Boundary Road, were Victoria, Beaconsfield and Gladstone Street.
Victoria was the Queen of England who reigned for more than sixty years, while William Ewart Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli (the latter ennobled as Lord Beaconsfield) were powerful political leaders and Prime Ministers of England in the 1880s.
Then came Bulwer Street, named in honour of Sir Henry Bulwer, the then Lieutenant-Governor of Natal, and Colley Street for General Colley, the head of the British military forces in Natal, who was killed on Majuba Mountain in 1881.
LOCAL HISTORY
After having laid this foundation for the town, streets they named afterwards were to record history of local interest.
So we get Smith and Willson Streets, named after two of the founders themselves – Peter Smith, the owner of the ground and head of the Smith, and Charles George Willson who, on the establishment of the town’s Local Board in 1897, became its first Chairman.
Ann Street, was named after Peter Smith’s wife, and Gray Street, after a family of the old Ladysmith district. There were three inter marriages between the Smith and Dray families.
Newcastle Road and Ladysmith Road followed; later they became, as we now know them, Oldacre Street and McKenzie Street. They were the start of the main roads to Newcastle and Ladysmith via, in the one case, Hattingspruit and Dannhauser to Newcastle and, in the other, via Waschbank and Elandslaagte to Ladysmith.
AJ Oldacre became a member of the Town Council in 1904 and continued as one for a number of years, being Mayor of the town in 1908, 1909 and again 1931-1933.
His record of service to the town and to the commercial interests to the district were outstanding. Newcastle Road was re-named Oldacre Street in 1935, and can be assumed that it was done out of appreciation of the services Mr. Oldacre rendered to Dundee.
Ladysmith Road was re-named McKenzie Street in 1935. Mr J McKenzie was also, but at a much later date, a member of the Town Council for many years, a prominent businessman of the town, and for whom, in appreciation of his work for the town, the Ladysmith Road was re-named. He was mayor of the town 1919-1920, 1928-1930 and again in 1941.
There remain of the town’s original streets as shown by some of the older maps among Council records, Union, Argyll, Browning and Albert Streets. Nothing has been as yet unearthed to explain why these streets were so named. Albert Street, laid out in 1882, could hardly have been named for Prince Albert, the Prince Consort of Queen Victoria, for he died in 1861. Though Union Street suggests some historical connection with the coming of the Union of South Africa in 1910, this is contradicted by the fact of the name appearing in many maps, previous to that year.
King Edward Street and Queen Alexandra Street were not laid out in the town’s original plan. They are part of what was originally the Market Square, and were laid out and named possibly as part of the Empire’s celebrations of the new King’s accession in 1902.
Norenius Lane, was named in appreciation and esteem of the more than 30 years’ service of Mr LA Norenius as a Municipal Councillor and he served as mayor in 1944 and 1946.
[Extract from the Northern Natal Courier 21st April 1967]
With additions by Pam McFadden from records in the Talana Museum archives.
DUNDEE
Friis Street
When the block between Victoria and Douglas streets was subdivided into plots and the access road created, Eric Friis requested that it be named Friis Street after his father Eigle Friis from whom Eric the eldest of 4 children inherited the land after the death of Eigle in 1959. Eigle established Good Hope drilling. Eric and Mary lived in Friis Street at one time in their long marriage. This is the house known as Stonehenge and which burnt down in 2025.
Tatham Street
George L Tatham was a land surveyor. He was chairman of the Local Board 1902-1904.
The Tathams had lived in Pietermaritzburg where, with his father and another brother, Gus had been a wheel- or wagon-wright, but when he became a district agent for the South African Mutual Life Assurance Co., they moved to the coal-rich town of Dundee. Gus was active as a town councillor, a committee member of the Dundee District Political Association, a member of the Dundee Public Library and of the Dundee Rifle Association, and Tatham Street, the road on which the present High School stands, is named after him. When the Anglo-Boer War broke out he joined up and he “had some interesting experiences”, being captured by Boers as he covered the escape of five of his comrades at Makhatiya’s Kop and was awarded both the Queen’s South Africa and King’s South Africa Medals (with bars for Talana, Laing’s Nek and Transvaal).
Reynolds Street
Named after the mayor of Dundee 1921 and 1923.
PEACEVALE STREETS
Vinden Street
This was named after teachers, husband and wife, who taught at the then Indian School. Bird names were chosen for many street names as this does not cause friction between people. The name Peacevale was, in the same way as Forestdale, named as a result of a completion for which the prize was R100.
Kalee Staduim was named after the tailor who worked in Willson Street. He was a soccer fanatic.
SIBONGILE
Sibongile Township had been surveyed in 1966 and formally declared in 1968. Sibongile incorporated the original area of farm “Doctor” which had been established by Dr Abraham in 1917. The first batch of 340 houses were built in 1960 along Langa, Jobe, Xaba, Mngadi and Madonsela Streets.
GLENCOE
Glencoe was established when the railway line was constructed between Port of Durban and Johannesburg and served as a Junction for coal loading from neighbouring Dundee and Northfield coal mines. It was first called Biggarsberg Junction after the Biggarsberg Mountain Range.
Later with the arrival of Scottish miners, it was renamed Glencoe Junction- which changed in 1932 when the Junction was dropped and it became Glencoe with the formation of a local council. It is a reminder one of the valley with that name in Argyleshire in Scotland.
Street names
The main streets of Glencoe were Karel Landman and Biggar Streets forming an intersection near the town hall and civic building.
Karel Landman Street was named after Voortrekker leader, Commandant Karel Landman, second in charge, at the Battle of Blood River. It stretched from his house at Uithoek, near Wasbank and was considered the longest street in KZN.
It passed through Glencoe to Dundee to connect with Victoria Street.
Biggar Street is the main Street stretching from the East to the West, connecting to road R68. Named after Alexander Harvey Biggar a British soldier who had settled at Port Natal (Durban). The Biggarsberg range of mountains is also named after him.
Schroeder’s Street was named after pioneer farmer Schroeder who had owned large parts of Glencoe, below the railway line. He sold the land to the Municipality and that area was subdivided with roads and plots for the Indian community who were displaced by the Group Areas Act of 1950. The former area was rezoned as the Industrial Area of Glencoe. Many roads were incorporated in the Industrial Area and lost it’s name.
Pieter van den Berg Street
Named after a mayor in about 1968, he worked on the railways. He died suddenly of a heart attack in about 1969.
Benville Street
This was named after Ben Viljoen who was responsible for the building of all houses near Glencoe Primary
Shapiro Street
Mr Shapiro owned Mine Stores and his bakery provided bread for all the coal mines of the area. He was murdered in the 1980’s. His house and bakery still exists in Glencoe
PREM LUTCHMAN TELLS US THE FOLLOWING ABOUT GLENCOE AND ITS STREET NAMES
One such was a street called Rawat Lane, named after my father’s father, Rawat , who came from India, on an indenture ship, and settled in Glencoe.
Names of streets in the former Indian Area were named after flowers eg, Buttercup, Rose, Dahlia, Aloe, Violet, Azelia etc.
The upper part of Glencoe has names such as Gandhi, Nehru and Sastri, after prominent Indian leaders, of India.
In the European area, streets were named after pioneer settlers in Glencoe, such as Kemp, Cellie and De Beers.
Damman Street was named after the farmer Damman whose farm still exists below Indumeni Mountain East of Glencoe.
Simpson Drive was named after a local farmer, Simpson, whose great great grandsons still farm in the area. He was the son-in-law of Karel Landman.
Dirkie Uys and Van Riebeeck Streets were named after pioneer settlers in SA.
Kerk Street after the Dutch Reformed Church, in that street.
Justice Street, is near the Magistrates Court.
Boundary Road is the Eastern boundary, below Indumeni Mountain.
Burnside Road linked Glencoe to Coal Mine Burnside on the Western side.
On the upper end of Glencoe we have street names after game, Kudu, Blesbok and Rietboek.
On the eastern side we have the African Township called Sithemble.
Street names, were named after prominent people in the aret, such as, Mthembu, Bbense, Chabide, Zamane and Ningizimu.
The old Sithemble area has street names such as Sith 11, Sith 18, Sith 15 etc.