Ely Street in the Central City, Christchurch

Ely Street in the Central City- formerly Princess Street and Salisbury Grove. Named after an English cathedral city in Cambridgeshire. Princess Street and Salisbury Grove were amalgamated to form Ely Street in 1909. [In 1898 a petition from the residents of Salisbury Grove had been received by the City Council asking that the name be altered to Seddon Street. This was not done. A small amount of information from the library website. Most references that I found had the street as Princes Street and not Princess St. The name Ely is obvious and I love Ely in the UK. For a tiny street I found a huge amount of information and for a change there wasn’t a lot of complaints about the state of the road or drains. The surrounding streets were obsessed with the bad repair of their streets plus the drains. Ely St runs from Salisbury St to Madras St but before the streets were amalgamated into one street they were two separate streets. I am assuming that Salisbury Grove ran off Salisbury St and Princes (Princess ) St ran off Madras St but I wouldn’t take that for granted with this street. Princes St / Princess wasn’t in Papers Past as much as Salisbury St but there was a court case involving the Salvation Army in 1888. A resident objected the their band parading on the street and the resident was charged with assault. It sounds like the resident was fed up with the noise from the band as they frequently paraded in the street. Found a write up about the street which said that there were already 9 buildings on it in 1862 and the writer found the information on a map drawn up by Thomas Cass. I am currently reading a history of historical maps and there is no guarantee that these buildings existed even if they were on a map. The street was further described as a street of little homes and occupied by artisans and other tradesmen. In 1883 the council regraded Salisbury Grove and did drainage work but in 1889 council said it was a private street and that they were not responsible for it. I can see why the residents of Salisbury Grove in 1998 wanted a name change but their proposal of Seddon St was never adopted. Salisbury Grove was frequently in the court news from 1892 to as late as 1906. The reason was the various disorderly houses. For a tiny streets they had at least three disorderly houses. If anyone has ancestors with the names Ethel Smith, Flora Weston, Sara Ward or Ettie Ford sorry about finding out your ancestor’s secrets. I personally liked Liverpool Jack who was charged with keeping a brothel on the the street. There were fights and thefts involved with at least one of these houses. In the write up that I found on Papers Past it said that Salisbury Grove ran west into Madras St and that there was another narrow lane called Sedan St and then Princes St and later became Salisbury Grove. You can see why I am confused about which part was Salisbury Grove and which was Princes St. If you want an interesting read then check out the article from 13th February 1935.Sedan St was mentioned in 1881 because of drainage issues. I also want to do more reading about the name Sedan as street was supposed to have been renamed because of Franco – Prussian issues. In 1909 the council reported that Princes St and Salisbury Grove would be renamed Hawkins St. This obviously didn’t happen as in the same year it was renamed Ely St. In 1910 there were two death notices and both said Ely St but in brackets one had Princess St and the other had Princes St. Just to confuse you further the council into 1924 announced due to duplication Princes St and Salisbury Grove would be renamed Ely St. Note residents seem to have been using Ely St from 1909 going by death notices. Are you confused already as I am. Don’t worry it gets easier one the street has just one name. There was an exchange of letters to the editor in 1912 where one man complained about residents of Ely St dumping their rubbish into the cemetery. Residents replied refuting this. In 1918 and 1919 I found many ads for artificial limbs business at 53 Ely St set up by W Chappell. I seriously sidetracked here looking up William Henry Chappell. In 1930 the council said that the street was exempt from road widening. Sadly in 1925 there were three cases of polio in the streets. In November 1937 a J S Barnett suggested that the city buy Ely St and build cottages for old age pensioners. There was a wee flurry of letters from the residents of Ely St and they were not happy with Barnett’s suggestion. This is a tiny street with no footpaths and it is still a narrow street. Parking must be horrendous for the residents. for a tiny street it has 74 properties but most are modern high density housing with most being built in 1990s or 2015 to 2016. They are so crammed in on the sections that if you sneezed all the neighbours would hear you. There are three older houses and one is looking very shabby. One from 1880 and one from 1890 plus one from 1910 and these three houses are at the end that runs from Salisbury St. The road also has big plots of raised gardens in it. It looks lovely but must be a nightmare for driving. There is a lovely wee reserve here called Ely Reserve and the reserve goes through to Melrose St with a third entrance to Moa Place. I wish that I could remember the street from before all the high density housing was built.