Bracken St – Shelly Road, Named after Thomas Bracken (1843-1898). Shelly Road first appears in street directories in 1903. Re-named Bracken Street in 1917. Bracken, a poet who wrote the words for New Zealand National Anthem, “God defend New Zealand” in 1870
A small amount of information from the library website. This street is in the red zone and there are no longer any houses here. Information from Papers Past had council report from June 1917 about changing the name from from Shelley St to Bracken St because of duplicate street in Sydenham. Because the Sydenham street was an older street the decision was to change the Avonside one. All articles in Papers Past have the spelling as Shelley Street. No information about why the street was renamed Bracken St. Thomas Bracken died in Dunedin aged 55 years old of goitre. He also used the names of Paddy Murphy and Didymus for his writing.
In 1928 a temporary dam was built across the Avon River at Bracken St to improve the rowing course. In 1929 the council agreed to pay for a weir in the River Avon by Bracken St.
The footpath is too rough to walk on and it is getting harder to see where the houses driveways used to be.
When looking for information about Morris St I found a report that said Bracken St was renamed after Tom Bracken.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 