Petition calls for Kanye West station in UK

Petition calls for Canterbury West railway station to be renamed for Kanye West

Would you be more likely to visit Kanye West Station than Canterbury West railway Station? Or would you get off at Norwood Intergalactic before Norwood Junction while riding London rail?

An online petition has called from the renaming of Canterbury West Station to Kanye West Station. Image by Ben Sutherland / CC BY 2.0

Those are two of the more interesting name suggestions for local transit stations in the UK.

A petition on Change.org by a Mark Kilner calls to rename the Canterbury West Station in the UK to honour rapper Kanye West. While the petition was first posted eight months ago, it now has more than 2,000 signatures and has been widely reported in the media.

The petition describes Kanye West as more than a celebrity, “He is the greatest human being of our time, a latter-day Moses”, and laments that he was not always been given the respect he deserves.

Kanye West. Image by SOCIALisBETTER / CC BY 2.0

Kilner, though noting he doesn’t actually listen to Kanye’s music, writes that he sees it as a step “towards a brighter future when the whole of Canterbury is renamed after Kanye”, and when “pilgrims can flock to Kayne Cathedral to pay homage to the great man, and the sick and the injured can be healed at Kent and Kanye hospital”.

Last month in London, after the Croydon council suggested changing East Croydon rail station to Croydon International due to its location between downtown London and Gatwick Airport, others called for Norwood Junction station to be renamed to Norwood Intergalactic.

According to the Evening Standard, the “self-styled” South Norwood Tourism Board made the suggestion in a letter, adding that the new name could draw in visitors “from other galaxies”.

The letter goes on to say that South Norwood is a community that welcomes people from around the world and the galaxy, noting that the change in name would be the first step in making the vision a reality, and “as the suggestion to rename East Croydon proves, current reality needn’t be a brake on our aspirations.”

While these name changes may not be coming any time soon, the widespread interest in the suggestions may have already put the spots on the map.