Watching as Derby Impales its Culture on Big Spikes

In the week that Sheffield is shortlisted for the UK City of Culture, news has broken that a new £36.2m road in Derby is to be named after video game/movie character Lara Croft following a public vote, I couldn't help shedding some judgement on the matter.

Living a few stops on the train from Derby myself means I am filled with a little more intrigue than if it was say, Londonderry. Derby folk chose to name the new road after the busty Tomb Raider as she was conceived in Derby by Core Design, and for some reason is seen as some sort of local hero.

Legendary football player Steve Bloomer, astronomer John Flamsteed and engineer George Sorocold were all pipped for the accolade, as Croft ran away with 89% of the 27,000 votes cast. And in the same breath, the spokesperson for Derby Transportation Council mentioned that a stretch of the new road structure will be named Mercian Way to honour local soldiers.

It reads like a story from The Onion.

Perhaps I am bias, as a person who abandoned the Tomb Raider back catalogue of games after spending the first 45 minutes forcing Croft to impale herself on spikes to hear her make sexy noises (I was fifteen at the time), and the following hour locking her butler in the walk-in freezer of her big English abode.

Keep your ears finely tuned for some copycat stories, as Garland Texas, home of the 3D Realms games developer unveils the all new Duke Nukem Crescent.