Austin Street in the suburb of Sydenham, Christchurch

Austin Street in Sydenham – Named after Alfred Austin (1835-1913). Austin was a lawyer, editor and poet and English poet laureate 1896-1913. 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. The Sydenham Borough Council decided to make Austin Street a public street on 13 March 1882. First appears in street directories in 1887.A small amount of information from the library website. Papers Past didn’t have a huge amount of information. Several sections were for sale between 1905 and 1907 and many mentioned sections being high and dry which makes me think that there was a flooding or drainage issue in the area. In March 1906 a resident requested that the Jackson Creek drain be completed at the same time as the drain in the orphanage grounds. Jackson Creek is the likely reason for water issues. In March 1904 the Lyttelton orphanage was destroyed by fire and the children were housed in a temporary location in Lyttelton. In April 1905 a private home was purchased in Austin St and altered to house the orphans. It became known as the Waltham Orphanage and the purchase price was £1200 and alterations and furniture upped the costs to £1600. This came out of the insurance payout of £2080 and the orphanage had a surplus. The orphanage had a fire in July 1918 but there was minor damage. The building was described as a 2 storey wooden building with 27 rooms and owned by Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. It housed 32 children and two staff in 1918. I found a lovely photo of the building online but it is subject to copyright. In 1940 the orphanage was a temporary convalescent home for soldiers. In 1928 there was discussion of widening the street and filling in Jacksons Creek. I walked this street on Monday and it is still a narrow street. At the Waltham St end there is a factory but the rest of the street has houses. Still a few from 1905 and 1910 and some are still looking lovely. A couple from 1960 and 1970 but the rest are mostly 1990s with a few post earthquake. I confess that I did like the fence with giant spiders on it and as I am writing this up I am looking at my fence and thinking about doing something similar. Yes I do like spiders. I looked at the map of 1929 but couldn’t work out which section was the orphanage. I knew this area fairly well in the 1960s and I am fairly sure that the factory on the corner of Austin St and Waltham Rd was there in the 1960s but going by the 1929 map it wasn’t there then.