Peer Street in the suburb of Upper Riccarton, Christchurch

Peer Street -Formerly Stemmer’s Road. Named after Robert Anthony Stemmer (1857?-1935). Re-named Peer’s Street and later Peer Street. Named after the racing stallion called The Peer which belong to Edward Jerningham Wakefield (1820-1879). Stemmer was a gardener of Upper Riccarton. Stemmer’s Road first appears in street directories in 1903. From 1906-1909 it appears in Stone’s as Stemmers Road and in Wise’s as Peer’s Street. Peer Street is first mentioned in The Press in 1881. From 1910 it is Peer Street in both street directories. The Peer was bred by the Hon. Capt. Hawke in 1855 and was at the stables of Messrs. John Shand & Son, Avon Lodge, Riccarton in 1862. Peer Street is one of the five residential streets once containing mainly workers’ cottages making up the area known as Peerswick. A reasonable amount of information from the library website. In Papers Past I found sections being sold on Peer Street in 1878 and in 1883 the road board were asking for tenders for gravelling the road. I couldn’t find anything on Papers Past regarding a Stemmer’s Road. This street had a mixture of houses, a supermarket and a school. There is a planned development for a rest home where there used to be Feltex Carpet Factory. I don’t recall anything standing out for me here. No photos.