Otley Street in the Central City, Christchurch

Otley Street in Central City- formerly New Street, North Street and Clyde Street. Named after Henry John Otley (1863- 1939). North Street was re-named Clyde Street in 1883. Residents requested the change because there was another North Street. The street was also taken over by the city council in 1883. Re-named Otley Street on 1 September 1948 when 120 streets were re-named. The change had been suggested in 1932. Otley was a builder. He was a partner in Winny and Otley, Winny being Charles Winny (1850- 1924), who was Mayor of New Brighton. Otley was also a freemason and also a Linwood borough councillor and Christchurch city councillor 1903-1917.A reasonable amount of information from the library website, Not sure that it is correct that street is named after Henry John Otley and I must see if I can access the street naming details from 1948.So many North Streets that I limited my search to Central Christchurch and St Albans but still probably missed information. Mostly found death notices. There was a house and section for sale in 1888. In 1891 a body of a baby was found and the mother was eventually charged. Then in 1908 there was a body of a baby was found on the footpath. The body was in a box and probably had been buried. Coroner said that the baby was likely to have been a stillborn baby. They didn’t find the mother of this one. Only a couple of complaints about the state of the road. Not a lot of entries for this street on Papers Past. Henry John Otley lived in St Andrews Square and then Hereford St in Linwood. In 1902 he is on record of being opposed to increasing wages for his workers. He also wanted factory workers to have their wages lowered. In 1917 he was standing for election to the Hospital Board. Henry Otley was a timber merchant and builder. Henry had a brother Charles Edward Otley who also was a timber merchant and his business was called C E Otley Ltd and the business address was 381 Madras St. Charles and his wife Annie lived at 387 Madras St. Otley Street runs off Madras St very close to where Charles Otley has his home and business, My personal feeling is that the street was named after Charles Otley rather than his brother. The street runs from Madras St Barbadoes St and it is a fairly narrow street. The property website said that there is only 29 properties here but it seemed like a lot more than that. Many are multi dwellings especially the ones from 1990s. There was a big block of modern apartments that looked much more recent and perhaps the property website hasn’t updated it’s information. Only about three older houses left on the street and the one from 1880 was looking rather rundown. I did rather like the very modern looking apartments but you are too close to the neighbours. I know, it is very strange for me to like a modern building. Parking was also be a big issue on this street. I both liked and didn’t like the street.