Athelstan Street – Probably named after Athelstan (c.895- 939) – Athelstan was the first king of all England, and Alfred the Great’s grandson. Athelstan Street is first mentioned in The Press in 1913 when 32 sections in Spreydon were auctioned.
A small amount of information from the library website.
Barrington Mall is one side and there is a medical centre and dentist plus some houses on the other side of the street. I usually do my shopping at this Mall plus I worked at the Post Office / Postbank here a very long time ago. The Post Office building is now a Coupland’s Bakery.
After searching Papers Past I have come up with some ideas for the naming of this street. It was surprising how common this name was especially as a middle name. There was a Leonard Athelstan King who was a builder and he died in 1935. There was Edward Athelstan Worthy who was a teacher at Christs College. He drowned in France in 1894. There was also John Athelstan Parsons who lived in Kaikoura but he moved to Christchurch in 1897. He was employed by the Land Board. The other possible reason for the name is the Druid Lodge Athelstan and the first meeting of this lodge was in 1880. There were also several articles about the history of Athelstan, King of England especially in connection with Malmesbury Abbey.
There was nothing on Papers Past to say why this street was given its name but as the library website mentions the first mention of the street was in 1913.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 