Carlyle Street – First Street. Stirling Street was incorporated into Carlyle Street. Formerly First Street. The streets south of, and parallel to, Moorhouse Avenue were named in numerical order. Re-named Carlyle Street. Named after Thomas Carlyle (1795- 1881). First Street is first mentioned in the Star in 1876. On a 1879 map it is shown running from Harper Street (later Orbell Street) to Gasworks Road (later Waltham Road). It does not appear in street directories. Carlyle Street is first mentioned in the Star in 1881 and first appears in street directories in 1887. Carlyle was a philosopher, writer, historian and critic. 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. Stirling Street appears in street directories as early as 1878 running from Colombo Road to Harper Street. It was incorporated into Carlyle Street on 27 September 1915.
A reasonable of information from the library website. I had a quick look on Papers Past and there was originally residential houses here. Lots of complaints about the state of the railway crossing. Mention of the road being closed while building new railway station.
I walked this street last week and it is an industrial area these days. I tried to walk this street one evening a few months ago but didn’t feel safe as I was followed by a man in a car.There was a mixture of what looked like new buildings and older ones. There was one old looking brick building that looked interesting but couldn’t find out any information about it.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 