Reaby Street in the Red Zone in the suburb of Burwood, Christchurch

Reaby Street in the Red Zone in Burwwod – Named after William Edgar “Bill” Reaby (1868-1950). Reaby was a market gardener and the father-in-law of Leonard Goodman (1912-1956), who also subdivided his market garden in Queensbury Street. The name of Reaby Road was suggested by Councillor Liggins at a meeting of the Waimairi County Council on 26 October 1932. Reaby Street was named formally on 8 February 1933. First appears in street directories in 1955.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website. I couldn’t find out much information about William Reaby and I checked Papers Past and the ancestry website. He was born in Thanet in Kent but some sources say he was born in Margate. He lived at 154 New Brighton Rd and his son Herbert who was also a market gardener lived at 193 New Brighton Rd. Most the entries on Papers Past are from the 1950s with a couple dated 1961. William died in 1950 and sections were available in the early 1950s so I am assuming that the property was subdivided after his death. There was a surveyor’s report from 1953 which states for the land to be subdivided and to be suitable for housing that it needed to be raised by nearly 4 foot. In 1961 a business called Joinery Services Ltd wanted to change the zoning from residential to industrial so that they could build a factory. It looked like there were about 21 houses here and it looked like a pleasant street with a couple of really interesting houses. Street view from 2012 shows a street with a lot of liquefaction. The google car obviously couldn’t drive the full length of the street because of the state of the street and street view suddenly changes from 2012 to 2007. Real estate ads made much of the reserve being at the end of the street but it was this end that had the most damage. It actually looked like it would have been a nice street to live on but it is now a waste land.