Penny Lane road signs in Liverpool, UK have been vandalized following unsubstantiated claims that the Penny in Penny Lane is 1700’s slave trader James Penny.
For starters, there is absolutely no evidence that Penny Lane was named after James Penny, as discussed by Liverpool councilor Liz Makinson below.
The vandals blacked out the word Penny and wrote Racist about the signs sometime last Thursday night.
Penny Lane was made famous in the song by The Beatles.
Images of the vandalism have been posted all over social media.
‘In Penny Lane there is a knobhead with an aerosol…’ pic.twitter.com/IYjkWWMcUV
— Tom (@Tommy_1972) June 12, 2020
Popped down to Penny Lane to get pictures on the graffiti to find the community already hard at work cleaning the signs. Real anger here. THERE IS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN PENNY LANE AND JAMES PENNEY THE SLAVE TRADER pic.twitter.com/xRukv7m4op
— Richard Kemp CBE (@cllrkemp) June 12, 2020
Every road sign along Penny Lane in #Liverpool has been vandalised overnight, including the one signed by @PaulMcCartney
It’s ahead of more planned #BlackLivesMatter protests over the weekend. pic.twitter.com/tgHQtJiSmY
— BBC Radio Merseyside (@bbcmerseyside) June 12, 2020
Liverpool was the main port of the UK in the 1700s. However there are no links to James Penny with Penny Lane. He didn’t live in the area, he didn’t own land in the area and as many old streets were named for their residents, it is highly unlikely that the lane was named after Penny. In fact, the common meaning of Penny Lane is ‘worthless lane’ as the name was often given to insignificant laneways throughout the UK.
Our thoughts on Penny Lane’s history, the research into its name and the need to be responsive to new evidence. pic.twitter.com/PAweUw2vCK
— International Slavery Museum (@SlaveryMuseum) June 12, 2020
Local councillor and history teacher Liz Markinson has posted this evidence that the vandals got it wrong. Penny Lane was not named after James Penny and that the vandals are just plain criminals.
Was Penny Lane really named after slave trader James Penny? pic.twitter.com/Bp1CEcnkM0
— Liz Makinson 🔶 (@LizMakinson) June 12, 2020
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