Hume Street in the suburb of Sydenham, Christchurch

Hume Street in Sydenham- Named after David Hume (1711-1776). Hume was a writer on religious topics. 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. First appears in street directories in 1892. Approval was given by the council for the street to be extended to Eastern Terrace in 1957.A small about of information from the library website. As usual Papers Past had lots of complaints about the state of the street in the 1880s and 1890s and in 1887 the council said that that couldn’t carry out the work requested by the residents as it is a private street. In 1892 Mr Ringwood complained about the nuisance near his property. The council promised to talk to the drainage board about the dumping of sewage in a pit on the street. The business Waltham Vineyard was mentioned several times and in the 1870s was referred to as Lord’s Vinery. James Narcarrow purchased the business in November 1879 after it was put up for auction as Thomas Lord was returning to England. The same year in the July Thomas Lord died in Adelaide. The vineyard was auctioned again in January 1895 as a mortgagee sale and James Narcarrow was a bankrupt. The vineyard was near Messrs Innes Brewery, In 1898 the vineyard was available to let. In 1901 there was talk of widening the road and then not many mentions apart from birth and death notices until 1957. In 1957 Hume St was extended to meet Eastern Terrace. I walked this street on Friday and some of the street seemed pleasant enough. A mixture of houses with the oldest dating from 1905. A large number from 1970s and 2000s. The houses from 2021 are ugly but then we all know that I don’t usually like modern houses. As you get closer to Austin Street there is the back wall of the Alto Packaging factory. Nearby on the opposite side is another business called Clovelly Gardens which as the name suggests it sells garden products. I will confess when walking past it I didn’t realise what type of business it was so it obviously didn’t stand out for me. Let’s be honest I don’t really do gardening type of activity or even housework type of activity.