Huxley Street in the suburb of Sydenham, Christchurch

Huxley Street in Sydenham- Fomerly Mona Street. Mona appears to have been an early name for the Isle of Man. Re-named Huxley Street. Named after Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895).A decision had been made by the council to name the street Mona Street. Residents petitioned against this: the name had never been agreed to at a public meeting, there was only one native of the Isle of Man resident in the street, and the name Milton Street had been asked for by petitioners. The Sydenham Borough Council was asked to alter the name in accordance with their resolution to name streets after popular authors, a decision made by a committee of the Sydenham Borough Council on 19 January 1880.A reasonable amount of information from the library website and I found the information about the petition. Apparently Mona is a Latin word for the Isle of Man and I learnt something new. The petition was from Mr McSherry and 22 other residents in First St Sandridge protesting about the name Mona. Between 1879 and 1882 the street seemed to be known as First St and there were a couple of businesses on the street. There was Sydenham Pottery Works and also stables belonging to Messrs Heywood & Co. In 1885 there was a court case involving a man who threw stones at the Salvation Army band when they were marching on the street. He claimed he was actually throwing stones at a dog. In 1899 there was a petition again a yard being formed for the accommodation of nightsoil carts and stables. In 1900 William Cain of Huxley St was sued for breach of promise. It was a vey long and confusing article. A huge number of death notices for the street. From 1915 through to 1918 there were many births at the Canadian Villa of Nurse Irving. In 1928 the births were at the premises of Nurse Wilson. There were a few house fires over the years but that was a common occurrence those days. I walked this street on Monday and ended up walking part of it today to get back to my car which was parked near Waltham Park. This street starts at Colombo St where there are shops and a petrol station. Sandridge Hotel is this end as well and this area used to be called Sandridge. Then there is a funny dogleg where Huxley St goes to the right. You have to actually turn right into Huxley St at the Burlington St corner. A tiny reserve here with a couple of seats and Jacksons Creek runs through here. There is also a walkway through to Humboldt St. The street then runs to Croydon St and there is a huge variety of house styles. There is a tiny cottage that the QV website says was built in 1880 and several houses from 1905. The biggest number of properties is from the 1970s and most are multi dwellings. Most decades are represented with large number built between 1990 and 2008. Some of the older houses are in poor condition. One brick house didn’t look quite right as it was in the style of a 1915 to 1920s wooden villa. It was built in 1915 and would have been a wooden villa but has had a brick veneer put over the wood. I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. There was a colourful building for the Learning Needs Library. The further away from Colombo St the nicer the street became.