Mandeville Street in the suburb of Riccarton, Christchurch

Mandeville St – Formerly Chinamen’s Lane. Named because of the Chinese market gardeners working on 30 acres where this street was formed. Re-named Mandeville Street. Named after William Drogo Montagu, Viscount Mandeville, later 7th Duke of Manchester (1823-1890). Chinamen’s Lane was an early informal name that never appears in street directories. Re-named Mandeville Road. The Duke of Mandeville was a member of the Canterbury Association from 1848. He took up Rural Section 145, an area of 350 acres on Riccarton Road. This was known as Lord Mandeville’s Swamp. Mandeville Road is first mentioned in The Lyttelton Times in 1859. It was dedicated in 1887 but does not appear in street directories until 1906. Becomes Mandeville Street in 1917.
A reasonable amount of information from the library website. Papers Past have both Mandeville Street and Mandeville Road names being used. Looks like this street has always been a mixture of industrial and residential. There are ads for the sale of houses plus birth notices at the same times there were ads for businesses. Two of the main businesses in the 1920s and 1930s were Butler’s Timber yard and Dominion Industries which produced linseed oil. Chinaman’s Lane is only mentioned in 1888 and it was someone complaining about state of the road.
There are houses at the Riccarton Rd end and businesses at Blenheim Rd end of this street. Most of the businesses seem to relate to housing ranging from furniture to new kitchens. Many of the houses date back to the 1910s and 1920s. There were also high density flats but only a couple seemed to be brand new. One business had what looked like a Llew Summers artwork in their grounds.