Guided Walk: Streets and Place Names

What’s in a street name? Recent conversations about street and place names — and who or what they commemorate — have highlighted how these everyday markers quietly shape our sense of identity, belonging, and exclusion. The names we pass by without a second thought can tell powerful stories about a neighbourhood’s past, its values, and whose histories are centred. This guided walk, led by artist and scholar Andrew Lochhead, invites you to see the city differently. Thinking of street names as the most visible “texts” of a city, we’ll explore the streets surrounding the Bata Shoe Museum and uncover the meanings behind their names. Together, we’ll consider what these names reveal about the Annex neighbourhood, its histories, and its wider connections. After the walk, we’ll gather back inside the museum for a collaborative discussion, sharing what we “read” along the way and reflecting on how public naming shapes the stories our city tells. The walk will take up to two hours. Please wear comfortable shoes.