Hutcheson Street in the suburb of Sydenham, Christchurch

Hutcheson Street in Sydenham – Probably named after Francis Hutcheson (1694- 1746)Hutcheson was a philosopher. Probably named to continue the theme of “poets and writers” streets of Sydenham, Addington and Waltham named by a committee of the Sydenham Borough Council on 19 January 1880. First mentioned in The Press in 1882 when two sections were sold there. First appears in street directories in 1887. A small amount of information from the library website and nothing that I can add about the name of the street. Not a lot of information on Papers Past apart from death notices. Found the same information about the sections in 1882. In 1912 there were several cases of arson in Christchurch including a building on this street. In 1933 a woman living with her mother on this street was stabbed in her leg by her estranged husband. Lots of ads by a tradesman J Bourk in the 1940s. One mention in November 1947 was very sad and it was about Jean Dick who worked in the millinery dept of Ballantynes. She was included in the list of the missing. This street runs from Colombo St and curves around to Brougham St. At the Colombo St end there was a McDonalds and I couldn’t believe that there was a queue here that early on a Sunday morning. There is also an entrance to a carpark for Subway at the Colombo St end. One side side of the street had the older houses dating from 890 and through to 1920. The other side had multi dwellings dated from 2000 to 2015. There is also the Sydenham Community Centre on this street and I used to visit this building frequently when I was in a tramping club. We used to hold our monthly meetings here. The older houses looked a bit rundown and I had to navigate cars parked on the footpath. There was space on the road for parking so being on the footpath was unnecessary. The modern places were crammed onto tiny sections. I personally wouldn’t like to live here.