Garnett Ave – First appears in street directories in 1938. This is all that the library website had about the street. A small wee cul de sac with a croquet club at the end of it. Really nice houses here.
No information on Papers Past about naming of this street. There are two possible reasons for the name. One is that in keeping with nearby streets that it has an author theme and is named after Dr Richard Garrett 1835 – 1906 scholar, librarian, biographer and poet. He was the son of Richard Garnett an author and was also keeper of printed books in the British Museum.
The other possibility is another Richard Garnett 1890 – 1964 who was a nurseryman and he lived on Clarence St. I couldn’t find out where his business was situated. His father was Arthur Henry Garnett who lived in Opawa. The Ancestry website didn’t have a lot of information and it wasn’t helped by people making mistakes when linking ancestors to family trees. This is all pure guesswork but the name had to come from somewhere.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 