Sumner Street – Formerly Bowden Street. Re-named Sumner Street in 1912 at the request of the South Christchurch Estate Company Ltd. Sumner was President of the Canterbury Association and Archbishop of Canterbury. Named after John Bird Sumner (1780-1862).
A wee bit of information from the library website. This street had a mixture of houses. There were the older weatherboard houses. Ones that that had been roughcasted. Some brick houses. Most were in reasonable condition but a few were rundown and needing tidying up. One weatherboard house was painted in Otago colours of yellow and blue. Most of the older properties had been subdivided but they didn’t look as good as Hinemoa or Harker St subdivisions. There was one brand new house that I didn’t like and it has a style that I have nicknamed toilet block style.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 