Two Warrnambool laneways will be renamed after councillors voted in favour of the change

The entrance to Ozone car park next to the former De Grandi sports store will be named after the family who ran the business there until its closure in 2011 ended a 114-year chapter for the city.

The laneway next to the newly constructed home of Myers Planning will be named Dispensary Lane after the pharmacy that once operated there on Timor Street.

The name changes - an idea put forward by business owner Steve Myers - received the unanimous backing of city councillors this week.

Cr May Taylor said the naming of the laneways would help avoid confusion for emergency vehicles and for delivery drivers.

"The proposed names have a distinct historical link to the sites ... Dispensary Lane is connected with Richard Kennedy who established a large pharmacy at 188 Timor Street," he said.

Cr Taylor said Mr Kennedy was very active in Warrnambool serving as a councillor from 1885 to 1890, and was president of the Warrnambool hospital, mechanics institute and art gallery.

He also served as a trustee of the Savings Bank and for many years and was a justice of the peace.

When the new Myers Planning building was under construction, old pharmacy bottles were unearthed on the block.

The naming of De Grandi Lane has also been welcomed by the family.

The iconic De Grandi's sporting goods store, was originally founded in 1897, and operated at various locations before closing in 2011.

David De Grandi told The Standard last year that his father Cyril and two brothers Mick and John - who both died last year - would be "absolutely thrilled" by the gesture.

In 1897, Louis De Grandi and brother-in-law Alf George went into partnership to open a 'cycle business' possibly at 166 Timor Street - a few doors up from the Timor Street location that still bears the business' name.

But around the turn of the century, in 1899/1900, Louis went out on his own and opened Champion Cycles at 84 Liebig Street and over the period trained his sons in the cycle trade when old enough to work.

His son Ernest, who served in France during World War I, returned to establish the cycle business in the iconic Timor Street location where it was handed down through the generations. Cyril De Grandi and later his sons John and Michael expanded the business into a regional sporting goods emporium.

Ernest and his young family lived at the back of the shop in the late 1920s and 1930s.

David Connoley, who is researching his family's history, said his mother Patricia remembered growing up at the shop alongside her brother Cyril and sisters Betty and Audrey .

"Times were pretty tough back then and living conditions fairly rudimentary," Mr Connoley said.

Louis' eldest son George De Grandi had also worked for his father before establishing his own business, Best Cycles, at 60-62 Liebig Street between 1917 and 1920 after stints in Kyabram and Nathalia.

Alongside Claude Eagles, George then opened a motor cycle and cycle shop at 200-202 Timor Street before heading to Geelong in the late 1920s to establish a cycle business there that is still run by his descendants.

Mr Connoley said Alf George had been a Raleigh Cycle agent and was active in establishing the Warrnambool to Melbourne cycle classic, which Ernest and George took part in during the early 1900s.

Louis' father, Felix, had come to Australia in 1855 during the gold rush period from Novaggio in northern Italy near the Swiss border.

Cr Richard Ziegeler and Cr Angie Paspaliaris praised the nod to the city's business history that the laneway names bring.

The proposal attracted two public submissions, one in support and the other suggesting that an alternative name could be L2P in honour of the driver mentor program which operates not far from the laneway.

But council ruled it out because it failed to meet a number of naming principles.

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