Keppel Street in the suburb of New Brighton, Christchurch

Keppel St in New Brighton – Formerly Sparshott Street. Named after Lucy James Hawkes, née Sparshott,(1833?-1918). Re-named Keppel Street. Named after Augustus, Viscount Keppel (1725-1786). Lucy Hawkes was the wife of James George Hawkes, an auctioneer, who split up much of the land in central New Brighton in the late 1870s. Sparshott Street was formed in 1890 and is first mentioned in The Press in 1891. It does not appear in street directories. Re-named Keppel Street at a special meeting of the New Brighton Council on 12 August 1907. Keppel was an admiral in the British navy. Harry Hawker (1868- 1947), a councillor 1905-1909, had suggested that New Brighton street names be changed to the names of British sea captains who had fought in the 18th and 19th century – a gesture linking Christchurch with the home country, was patriotic and emphasised the fact that New Brighton was a seaside suburb. A lot of information from the library website. The earliest mention of Sparshott St was in 1891 and the council stated that they would do the work on Sparshott St and the nearby streets once property owners have fenced their properties and subdued the drifting sands. In 1893 the street was formed and sections were for sale in the 1890s. The street name was changed in August 1907 and after that date there were many family notices especially death notices. In 1912 there was a letter to the editor about the council reporting that there was problems with the young men who were living at the camps on the street. The letter writer said that he had lived on the street for nearly two years next to the camps and that the young men were well behaved and there had been no bad behaviour from them. In 1914 there were ads for weekend cottages available for rent. The saddest articles are about a little girl who went missing in 1927 and she was never found. In 1928 some boys playing at North Beach find a skeleton and it is likely to be the missing little girl. There are 62 properties on the street and many were built in 1970 and 1990. There were a few houses dated between 1890 to 1930 and a couple looked like they used to be baches. I can’t really describe the houses as they all looked very different to each other but most were wooden houses.