Kilmore Street in the Central City, Christchurch

Kilmore Street in the Central City- Named after an Irish bishopric, Kilmore, near Cavan. One of Christchurch’s original streets 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. John Robert Godley lived at Killegar Park, in County Leitrim, near Kilmore Cathedral. First mentioned in The Lyttelton Times in 1852 when 1/4 acre sections are advertised for sale there. A small amount of information from the library website and nothing that I can add about the name. Huge number of entries on Papers Past so I mostly concentrated on pre 1900. In 1860 there were building allotments for sale but the earliest date I found for selling sections was in 1854. From 1861 there were houses as well as land for sale. In 1863 the council / road board called for tenders for metalling the road but it was metalled until 1868. We complain these days about the council but it wasn’t much different in the early days when Christchurch was much smaller. They can’t have done a good job as in 1870s there were complaints about the state of the road. There were also complaints about the bad state of the footpaths and side channels in 1868 and 1869.The 1860s and 1870s there were many complaints about drainage and 1864 there were several cases of fever due to defective drains. Same year a Mr Worth was warned about keeping pigs on his property. In 1865 there were complaints about filthy discharge and a disagreeable smell coming from the brewery belonging to Mr Moore. In 1870 Moore & Co of Phoenix Brewery completed a large malthouse. Several brothels on the street in the 1860s and one was called The White House and it was owned Martin Cash. Usually the women are named inn connection with the brothels such as Catherine Greaves, Hetty Barnes and Martha Jones alias Brown. Joseph Bailey owned several buildings on the street and there was at least one hotel the Britannia Hotel. There was a jeweller Mr Swindell and many other businesses but as there were thousands of ads I will confess to giving up on looking at them. In 1865 children playing in the garden of a vacant house found a skull and bones. Several more were found and it was possibly a Maori burial ground. I couldn’t find out what happened to the bones. There was Nurse Haste’s maternity home at 137 Kilmore St in the 1920s and many birth notices mention it. The Caledonian Hall was on Kilmore Street in the 1920s. There was a dance hall and skating rink in the 1930s and 1940s that had strict police controls because of the many complaints from nearby residents about the behaviour of the people using the building. The street runs from Fitzgerald Ave to Park Terrace and probably the most well known building is the Town Hall. Forte Health Hospital also has an entrance here. I remember seeing The Normal School being demolished and there were protesters there who were against it being demolished. The street runs past Cranmer Square. The Convention Centre used to be here opposite the Town Hall but this is a wasteland these days. There are modern apartments as you get closer to Park Terrace and Cathedral Grammar School has land on the corner of Kilmore St and Park Terrace. There are some brand new high rise apartments are being built between Durham St and Cranmer Square. A few older houses at the Fitzgerald Ave end with dates from 1880 to 1930 but most houses date from 1970s onwards. Many built from 2015 to 1020 and they are ugly apartments squeezed onto small sections.