SOUTH ASIAN-INFUSED LONDON DISTRICT LEAST ‘ENGLISH’ TOWN: SURVEY
Agence France Presse — English
September 11, 2006 Monday 1:46 PM GMT
A London suburb with a large south Asian population is the least
"English" town in the country, according to a survey released Monday.
Southall in west London, was found to have the lowest proportion
of people with English surnames and first names, in a report for
OriginsInfo, which analyses where names come from.
Southall railway station is the only one in England in which the name
signs are in two languages (English and Punjabi).
A pub in the town claims to be the only one in Britain which accepts
payment in Indian rupees.
OriginsInfo’s research placed the 42.2 million adults registered to
vote in Britain into 200 ethnic groups on the basis of surnames and
first names.
South Tottenham, in north London, was found to be the most diverse
area of the British capital, according to the results.
Ripley, in Derbyshire, central England, was named the town with the
highest proportion of English names, ahead of nearby towns.
The study into the most "English" towns excluded Scottish, Irish and
Welsh names.
However, surnames dating back to the Norman conquest of England in
1066, as well as surnames from Hugenot Protestants who fled to England
from France in the 16th and 17th centuries, were classed as English.
The report also found that Armenian immigrants and their descendants to
be the most successful ethnic group in Britain, followed by Japanese,
Dutch and Greek Cypriots.
Bangladeshi Muslims and immigrants from Sierra Leone and Syria were
found to have fared the worst.