Campaign for "Little Britain"

British expat entrepreneurs Nicky Perry and Sean Kavanagh-Dowsett have launched a campaign to rename a quarter of New York as “Little Britain”. The pair own a shop and restaurants in the city’s Greenwich Village district that is home to nearly two-dozen British owned or themed businesses. Like Chinatown, Koreatown and Little Italy, they believe that the name of the area should reflect its assumed national character.

A website, www.campaignforlittlebritain.com, has been launched, tongue in cheek posters have sprung up in the area and a viral video has be uploaded onto YouTube (you can see it here - worth a look). They’ve also enlisted the support of fellow British entrepreneur, Richard Branson, who has put the weight of Virgin Atlantic behind the effort. A petition, available via the campaign website, will close on 1st May and the results will be presented to a local community board and then to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

With a well planned campaign and the backing of a major brand, SwelledHead thinks Little Britain could be in with a chance. The major sticking point could be that, unlike the other “little nations” that punctuate New York, Little Britain is essentially a commercial gimmick rather than a reflection of immigrant heritage. That said, the area is now adopting a distinctive character that is attractive to locals and tourists alike. A commercially minded mayor like Bloomberg may well consider that this is reason enough.

One snide aside from back in Blighty – have Nicky and Sean not see the BBC comedy series, Little Britain? Its popular catchphrases, such as “yeah but, no but” and “I want that one”, have entered the vernacular. The connotations however, are hardly positive. Britons visiting New York’s Little Britain may be a little perplexed to find quaint tea rooms and fish & chips, rather than vomiting Tory ladies and Lou & Andy.

Comments

[rupert]

arguably the protagonists have organically grown it in the 20 years they have been in operation...

[Arun Sinha]

The petition will probably succeed, but I see it making little difference to the NYC vernacular. Chinatown and Little Italy got their nicknames not through mayoral fiat but through common usage. If there was enough of an organic movement behind the new name, we would already be calling the area Little Britain.

But then, organic growth takes time, and this is 2007. Who has time?