Peterborough Street in the Central City, Christchurch

Peterborough Street in the Central City – Named after the bishopric of Peterborough in England. One of the original streets of Christchurch named in 1850 by Captain Joseph Thomas (b. 1803?) and Edward Jollie (1825-1894) in March 1850. The names were taken from bishoprics listed in Burke’s Peerage. First mentioned in The Lyttelton Times in 1852 when 1/4 acre sections are advertised for sale there. small amount of information from the library website and there is nothing that I can add about the name of the street. Huge amount of entries on Papers Past especially birth and death notices. One of the first settlers on this street was John Raven a clergyman and he was on the roll as early as 1853. In 1863 there were calls for tenders for forming and metalling the street but in 1868 in a letter to the editor a resident asked why the delays in forming the street. He said that in winter they are up to their ankles in mud. In 1869 the cost for shingling the street was £27 so the work was eventually done. In 1863 someone suggested cutting the flax that was at the peat swamp near St Lukes Church so that the ground could dry over summer. I am not sure that this was successful as there were letters to the editor in 1870 about the state of the swamp as it was being used as a cesspool. No wonder early Christchurch had so many outbreaks of typhoid. In 1866 the committee of the Female Home were able to purchase the building that they had been previously leasing. The Female Home was in the news again in 1867 when a man was charged with attempted arson. Luckily only a shed at the property was damaged. Still in the year 1866 and Charles Hilton was given permission to build a boathouse on the river opposite his house. In 1864 there was discussion about converting Free’s Creek to a covered drain. I will have to see if I can find an old map that will tell me where this creek was situated. In the 1860s there was much discussion about sinking an artesian well and in 1870 Artesian well sinkers Burton and Hollingsworth got the contract for this work. The 1860s and 1870s the street seemed to have several disorderly houses. One man in 1862 was charged with renting houses to women of loose character. In 1870 Fanny Hardy and Annie Driscoll were charged with keeping a disorderly brothel. These houses always seemed to be disorderly and was it likely that there were orderly brothels. In 1866 there was a coroner’s report about a married man from Rangiora who was the father of five children. This man went to a house of ill fame where he told the inmates that he had taken laudanum. He was taken to hospital where he expired. Verdict was suicide. There was the Phoenix Brewery on this street and it was established by Richard Taylor but was then run by A Moore and Co. I mostly only looked at Papers Past pre 1900 for this street because of the thousands of entries but a couple of the businesses on the street in the early 1900s were Browns Laundry and Hayward Bros. The street runs from Park Tce to Barbadoes St, Most the dwellings are from 1990 onwards with many built post earthquakes. They are high density building crammed onto the sections and most are really ugly. There were a few houses from 1950 and there are two houses from 1905. The house from 1915 is fenced off so I would expect that it will be demolished. The older houses are at the Barbadoes St end. Many businesses on this street and too many to name. Forte Health covers a big area. The Casino covers one block here but only has loading bays and a car park entrance on this street. The building that housed the library after the earthquakes is now a campus for NZMA a vocational college whatever that means. A building that stands out for me is the Clark Boyce building because of it’s shape. I didn’t get a photo this time but have taken photos of it previously. On the corner of Peterborough St and Montreal St is the Peterborough Centre previously the Teachers College. This heritage building was damaged in the earthquakes and still closed off and hasn’t been repaired. On the corner of Peterborough St and Park Tce is Georges Hotel. Trying to cross Victoria St and Montreal St is a nightmare as there are no lights or pedestrian crossings.