Racecourse Road in the suburb of Sockburn, Christchurch

Racecourse Road in Sockburn – Named because of its proximity to Riccarton Racecourse. First appears in street directories in 1903.

A tiny amount of information from the library website and the name is obvious. Riccarton Racecourse is still there. There was a huge number of entries for Racecourse Road on Papers Past as so many towns in New Zealand seemed to have a Racecourse Rd. I reduced my search to only four newspapers but there was still thousands of entries because there was a Racecourse Rd in New Brighton. I did find the street mentioned as early as 1869 and usually in connection with racehorses. There were complaints about racehorses being ridden on footpaths. In 1899 there were sections for sale from Boon’s estate. The road was also known as Riccarton Racecourse Rd and under this name the earliest mention was in 1862. There was a railway station here as early as 1866 and there were special trains on race days. I have a friend who has an interest in early railways in New Zealand and he hides geocaches with a railway theme.

Two of the older buildings on this street are Chokebore Lodge built 1856 and Racecourse Hotel built 1883. There were obviously lots of stables on this road but Chokebore Lodge was the more well known one. The Christchurch City Abattoir was opened in 1903 and huge number of ads connected to this business plus a couple of news items. One news item was about a fire in 1968 and in 1952 there was a burglary and the safe was blown open with explosives. The photos that I found online showed a huge complex but I am not sure exactly where it was but there is a big section of land with rundown buildngs on it near Yaldhurst Rd which has an abandoned look about it.

In 1933 a property called Strowan Villa was for sale but most other mentions were death notices. There are still a few older houses on the road with houses built in every decade. Huge number of the houses date from 1970s and 1990s. I imagine that as older estates were sold that they were subdivided. The racecourse obviously takes up a large part of this road. The hotel is still there and now has a motor lodge attached to it. There is a bowling club and a pre school. Near the Main South Rd end it is mostly businesses and somewhere there was a business that gave off a horrible smell. I did find one Art Deco house but it wasn’t a great example of Art Deco. This is such a strange street as it doesn’t follow a straight line and had at least two sharp corners. A few nice houses especially the older houses but personally I wouldn’t like to live here. There are nice green places for walking nearby which I do like.

Edited to say that the rundown section near Yaldhurst Rd were stables and the abattoir was at the Main South Rd end of the road. That was the end of the street which had a horrible smell but I don’t know if there is still a abattoir in the area as I couldn’t find one when googling and checking maps. Thanks very much to a friend who knew this area from their school days and was able to give me the information.