Rope Street – Formerly Lyttelton Street. Named at the request of the residents to honour the visit to Christchurch of George William Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton (1817-1876), in 1868. Re-named Stafford Street. Probably named after Edward William Stafford (1819-1901). Re-named Truro Street. Named after Truro, a cathedral town in Cornwall. Re-named Rope Street. Lyttelton Street was a blind alley laid out in 1862. Taken over officially as a public street in 1881. Re-named Stafford Street in 1894. From 1896 Lyttelton Street appears with a see ref. to Stafford Street. This change was made official on 7 March 1904. Stafford was Premier 1856-1861, 1865-1869 and 1872. Re-named Truro Street in 1909. Re-named Rope Street on 1 September 1948 when 120 streets were renamed.
A reasonable amount of information from the library website for a tiny street. In 1874 a woman was charged for keeping a house of ill-fame. I discovered the details of this street when searching for Lyttelton St in Spreydon on Papers Past. I suspect it was this Lyttelton St that was a hotbed of sickness as it sounds like it was a narrow cramped alley. I couldn’t find out how it got the name Rope St. I checked ancestry website and there were people with the surname Rope in Christchurch but couldn’t find out much information about them.
Can’t actually walk this street these days as it is at the back of countdown. It is off Madras St.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 