Thames Street in the suburb of Mairehau, Christchurch

Thames Street in Mairehau – Formerly Toons Road. Named after John Toon (1835?-1918). Re-namedThames Street. Named after the Thames River which passes through London. Tenders were called for the forming and metalling of Toon’s Road in 1870. Toon won the contract. Toon’s Road first appears in street directories in 1892. Toon, a farmer of St Albans, is a resident in 1896. Re-named Thames Road in 1916. A small amount of information from the library website. I only found one mention of Toon’s Rd in Papers Past and it was about the tender for forming the road. Thames Street was a very common name in New Zealand plus one in London was mentioned frequently. So many entries on Papers Past that I narrowed my searching to 4 newspapers. Lots of death notices including an obituary for George Frost in 1927. Sewage pipes were laid in 1925 and there was a polio case on the street in the same year. In 1928 the Baptist Schoolroom was mentioned. In 1920 a house plus 7 acres of land was sold and I suspect that this street didn’t have many residents previous to this date. In 1931 six boys between the ages of 9 and 12 were charged with damaging 45 insulators in Thames St and Innes Rd area. Parents protested at their sons being charged. Judge gave them a good telling off and discharged them. I found a mention of this street in March of this year where because of the increase in traffic and speeding that traffic calming areas were being installed on a trial basis. John Toon had lots of mentions on Papers Past and none were nice mentions. He was bankrupt in 1892 and there were mortgages over one acre in Springfield St and Shirley Rd plus house and land in Toon’s Rd. John Toon had farmed in the area for 31 years and leased 40 acres from Rev C McKay. The lease had expired the year before and not renewed. In 1864 he was fined for having an unregistered dog. There were numerous entries for John Toon being drunk and disorderly. The entries cover most years from 1874 to 1914. In 1885 he was charged with failing to support his wife. He had turned her out of the house as she had neglected to attend to his wants. He admitted to being drunk at the time. They had been married 29 years. He frequently requested that she return home but she refused. In 1886, 1889 and 1892 he applied to either have the maintenance reduced or cancelled. This was declined and there were 19 warrants because of his failure to pay maintenance. Mary Ann Toon died in October 1902 and is buried in Barbadoes Cemetery. John Toon died in 1918 and I couldn’t find a grave for him. I know what my interpretation of the state of the marriage is and my personal feeling is that he was a nasty drunk. I walked this street on Saturday morning and was managing to walk in the opposite direction of my son’s house. He did laugh. This street runs from Westminister St to Innes Rd. There is the St Albans Preschool which had a colourful fence. Further along there was a new looking building for Lamb of God Community Centre and I wonder if this is where the Baptist Schoolroom used to be. A couple of houses from 1910 here plus several from 1920s. Several houses from 1940s and 1990s. One from 1970 and a couple from 1930s. Most are in good condition and the older houses have been modernised. Most houses are wooden with only a couple of brick houses.