Faraday Street in the suburb of Sydenham, Christchurch

Faraday Street in Sydenham – Named after Michael Faraday (1791-1867). Faraday was an English chemist and physicist, also writer and lecturer. One of the “poets and writers” streets of Sydenham, Addington and Waltham named by a committee of the Sydenham Borough Council on 19 January 1880. [It is mis-spelt in the report of the committee as Farraday.]

A small amount of information from the library website. Papers Past had several birth, death and marriage notices for the street. In 1883 the ratepayers living on the street wrote to the council requesting that the council take over the street and undertake to do the repairs. There were the usual drain issues in 1884. In 1896 the Sydenham Lawn Tennis Club opened their season at their court in Faraday St. In 1904 after the council purchased land at the back of Faraday St they closed the right of way that led to Milton St. Several articles about this and the Works Committee investigating the matter claimed that the right of way was legally only available to the occupiers of the land that the council had purchased. One of the petitioners against the closing of the right of way had taken legal advice and that because it had been opened and used by residents for over 20 years that it couldn’t be closed. There was mention of an agreement dated 1871.In 1954 Bruce Monk a plumber was fined for using his premises as a workshop. In 1958 there were complaints about a building where two young men had began a plumbing business. Council said that the business had now moved to Industrial Site B and that the building was only to be used for garaging of cars. I walked this street on Friday and it just looks like an entrance to the shops beside the street. There are no longer any houses and no street sign saying Faraday St so I had to keep checking the map on my phone to see where the street was. I believe there is still a council storage yard behind the street but it is well and truly fenced off.