Smartlea Street in the suburb of Hoon Hay, Christchurch

Smartlea Street in Hoon Hay – First appears in street directories in 1953.A tiny amount of information from the library which is disappointing as the street is named after an interesting man. There is also a Smarts Road in Hornby named after the same man. Lea means a meadow or field so the meaning of the street name is Smart’s field. The street is named after Samuel Smart and Papers Past and the ancestry website had reasonable of information him. Samuel was born in Nottingham, UK and he came out to New Zealand on the ship Zealandia in 1858 with his wife and children. His wife gave birth to a child on board ship. His first contract in New Zealand was building a wharf in Lyttelton for the government. Samuel was a contractor specialising in asphalt and is credited with introducing asphalt into New Zealand. Samuel leant his trade working for his uncle in Nottingham. He lived on Milton Street and was a member of the Spreydon Road Board. I realised that I already knew about this man from previously reading about Smart’s Pond. Samuel had a quarry which eventually filled up with water so he stocked with fish. I found entries calling it Smart’s celebrated fish lake and one article used the word piscine. Samuel then purchased land in Hornby to use as a quarry. Samuel died in 1897 and his son Alfred continued in the family business.This is a short street running from Heathcote River to Hoon Hay Road. There is a wee bridge over the river between Glynne Crescent and Smartlea Street. Most the houses were built in 1950s with only 4 or 5 houses from a later date. Most houses are in good condition with nice gardens. One or two are looking a bit rundown but it looked like a pleasant wee street. One house on the corner of Smartlea St and Weir Place had a garden so immaculate that I could imagine weeds being too scared to grow there. There was an Art Deco looking house but I couldn’t get a good look at it because of the well established trees around it. Pity as Art Deco houses are usually very interesting.