N 1 Ada ln

As you know, I'm the sort of blogger who likes to write about the really big subjects: War, peace, left-wing, right-wing, politics, philosophy, the universe. That sort of stuff.
So it was in a spirit of solemn and serious contemplation that I sat down recently with a copy of the Newcastle UBD and asked myself the question - How many streets with palindromic names are there in Newcastle? How many streets are there with names that read the same backwards as they do forwards?

Easiest to spot were the near-palindromes. Streets like...

Callan Avenue, Maryland
Hallam Street, Charlestown and Cessnock
Malay Street, Ashtonfield

... which simply require the change of one letter to become respectable palindromes. Some streets, on the other hand, required the extraction and/or addition of one letter to become palindromes:

Canna Street, Bolwarth
Edden Street, Adamstown, Bellbird, and West Wallsend
Edye Street, South Maitland
Pepper Lane, Anna Bay

There were two (by my count) word-palindromes - that is, you reverse the order in which the words are read, not the spelling:

Gan Gan Road, Anna Bay, Boat Harbour, Nelson Bay, and One Mile
Nulla Nulla Lane, Hinton

Not to mention oddities like Minmi Road (Cameron Park, Stanford Merthyr, and several other locations) which requires the reversal of the last two letters to make a neat palindrome; or Llewellyn Street, Merewether - where, if you take the 'yn' out, you are left with a most attractive palindrome.
And I shall not forget to mention a number of other streets, lanes, and roads which are, for one reason or other, noteworthy and interesting: Blackbutt Crescent, Blackbutt Place and Blackbutt Road,Cockburns Lane, Bogans Way, Dagworth Road (of Louth Park), Dick Street, Dickenson Road, Dickinson Road, Dickson Road and Dickson Street,Dixon Drive and Dixon Street,Hooker Avenue (of Islington - a very appropriate location), Hitchcock Avenue, Queens Road, Spoon Rocks Road, and (last but not least) Doghole Road.

But, amongst all these, I found a satisfying cache of palindromes -
Ada Street (which can be found in Belmont, Cardiff, Hsamilton, Mount Hutton, Telarah, Toronto and Wallsend)
Anna Place, in Wallsend
and Civic Avenue, in Caves Beach (there is also a Civic train station);
In Raymond Terrace, there is Glenelg Street and Tumut Street (there is also a Tumut Street in Dudley), while in One Mile and Wallsend there is Hannah Parade. Belmont has Nikkin Street, while Rabar Close runs through both Seaham and Dudley.
And finally, there was an Ede Close in Charlestown.

And that, as they say, is that. To all those who think that I have better things to do with my time than searching through street directories for palindromes, I say - yes. Yes, there is. But I'm not going to do it.
For those who want to delve further into this fascinating subject, go to Whereis.com.au, and do a search. Agent Fare Evader also has links to a number of maps and train lines on his site.