Chaucer Street in the suburb of Sydenham, Christchurch

Chaucer Street in Sydenham – Formerly Wakefield Street. Probably named after The Vicar of Wakefield, by Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774). Re-named Chaucer Street. Named after Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400). Wakefield Street first appears in street directories in 1892. Re-named Chaucer Street on 1 September 1948 when 120 streets were re-named. Both names 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.A small amount of information from the library website and I am not sure that the reason for the Wakefield name is correct. My reason for this is that there is a nearby Gibbon St and it is possible that these two streets are named after Edward Gibbon Wakefield. There was also four families living here with the surname Wakefield but they didn’t seem to be connected to the family of Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Very little information on Papers Past about this street. There was a house fire in 1904 which totally destroyed the house. There was another house fire in 1920. A few death notices. In 1930 they were considering exempting the street from widening under the Public Works Act. I walked this street on Monday and it runs off Hargest Crescent. There are 12 properties here and one dates from 1915 and three from 1920. Sadly they have been totally ruined by being covered with roughcast. The most interesting house was from the 1990s and almost had an Art Deco look.