Sheppard Place in St Albans – formerly School Road and School Place. Named because it leads to St Albans School. Re-named Sheppard Place. Named after Katherine “Kate” Wilson Sheppard (1847-1934)School Road first appears in street directories in 1894. Becomes School Place. Re-named Sheppard Place on 1 September 1948 when 120 streets were re-named. Kate Sheppard was a suffragist, social reformer and writer.
A small amount of information from the library website and nothing that I can add about the name of the street. I was in the area geocaching and this tiny street runs from English Park to Trafalgar St. St Albans School and English Park take up most of the street. Most entries on Papers Past are for games at English Park or for the school. In 1925 there was a complaint about people attending games at English Park damaging the school grounds. There was also a School lane in Riccarton which will explain the name change in 1948. The earliest mention that I could find for the school was in 1866 but the school at that stage was on a different site. The best information about the school was from the centenary in 1973. The school was actually established in 1859 but was a private school called St Albans Wesleyan School. It became a public school in 1873 and moved to the current site in 1874. A few entries in 1956 about building a school hall.
Only 4 houses on the street and the oldest is from 1905 and another is from 1910. The other two are from1985 and 2000. Personally I wouldn’t like to live here because of the park and the school. I suspect that when there are games on at English Park that traffic would be a nightmare even with the yellow no parking lines.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 