Salisbury Street in the Central City, Christchurch

Salisbury Street in the Central City- Named after the English bishopric of Salisbury. One of the original streets of Christchurch named in 1850 by Captain Joseph Thomas (b. 1803?) and Edward Jollie (1825- 1894). The names were taken from bishoprics listed in Burke’s Peerage. First mentioned in The Lyttelton Times in 1858 when land for sale there is advertised. A small amount of information from the library website and nothing that I can add about the name of the street. There was thousands of entries on Papers Past. The earliest entry that I could find was a Jury List dated 1860 and two men with the same names of John Atkinson. In 1862 Henry Crooks had a freehold section here and in 1863 the council received a letter from him saying that residents were unwilling to subscribe to the one third cost of metaling. Later that year the council put out a list of who paid and how much they had paid. Henry Cook’s name was not on that list. Same year the landowners on Salisbury St requested that the council do the formation of the other streets in the area but the council reply was that they didn’t have the funds. In 1861 there were letters to the editor about the nearby creek being dangerous. In 1863 the council said that they have taken steps to make the bridge safe. In the early 1900s there was at least two maternity homes. Nurse King at 90 Salisbury St and Nurse Irving’s Canadian Villa at 139 Salisbury St. There was a huge number of birth and death notices for the street. This is a long street that runs from Park Tce to Barbadoes St. There are 351 residential properties here and oldest one was built in 1905. Huge number of properties built in 2000 and 2020 and most are high density blocks of apartments. Some are so ugly and for some reason these are the ones that win awards. Many businesses on this street and the most well known would have to be Briscoes. Salvation Army have a huge building on the corner of Salisbury St and Colombo St. There is Maryville Courts which is a retirement home. A couple of the housing blocks look like they could be social housing. A building that I did like was The Salisbury Hotel but I couldn’t work out if it was a brand new building or an old building done up. They give their address as Madras St but it is on the corner of Madras St and Salisbury St. To stay here costs rather more than I am prepared to pay.