Milton Street – Cowper Street was incorporated into Milton Street. Appears as Restell’s Road on an 1879 map. Named after John Pain Restell (1825-1885) who owned a farm there which was subdivided in the late 1870s. Milton Street was named after John Milton (1607- 1674); Cowper Street after William Cowper (1731-1768). One of the “poets and writers” streets of Sydenham, Addington and Waltham named by a committee of the Sydenham Borough Council on 19 January 1880. Both Cowper and Milton were English poets. Milton Street and Cowper Street both first appear in street directories in 1887, Cowper Street running off Milton Street. Cowper Street was incorporated into Milton Street in 1889.
A reasonable amount of information from the library website. Probably nothing that I can add to this.
There are shops at the Barrington St end of this street. Many older wooden villas here on this street with occasional slightly newer brick houses. Between Selwyn St and Colombo St there is an entrance to Bradford Park. In this area there are some more modern houses plus 1970s style of flats. At the Colombo St end there are a few businesses and I was amused by the one flying a skull and crossbones flag. One building looked like it could be an historic building.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 