Waltham Road in the suburb of Sydenham, Christchurch

Waltham Road in Sydenham – Formerly Gasworks Road. Named because the Gasworks were there. Also Langdown Street. Re-named Waltham Road. Named, as the suburb is named, after Waltham House, a large house on Colombo Road belonging to Charles Prince.Gasworks Road is first mentioned in the Star in 1871 and appears on an 1879 map. Waltham Road is mentioned in street directories of 1878 so the street had alternate names for a time. In 1889 the council proposed re-naming the road Langdown Street to honour a retiring mayor, William Langdown (1827-1903). It appears on an 1890 map as Langdown Street. According to an 1890 newspaper report this name was rejected by residents. However, from 1905 to 1948, the section from Austin Street to the bridge at Wilsons Road was known as Langdown Street. There had once been lime kilns in the street named Langdown & Co.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website. Papers Past had a huge number of entries which included lots of death notices and a few birth notices. Both Gasworks Rd and Waltham Rd were used at the same time and there was also a Gasworks Rd in Lyttelton. Frequent complaints about the state of the road. Because of the huge number of articles I mainly looked at articles pre 1900. Some of the businesses and buildings in the street were Reese’s Store, Innes Brewery, Langdowns, Oddfellows Hall, the old public library and of course the gasworks. I don’t know when Waltham school was opened but I found a mention in 1896.

In 1889 when it was announced that the name was changing to Langdown St there was an outcry about it with a petition against it. In the end only part of the street was named Langdown St and it went from Austin St to Wilsons Rd. This part was still Langdown St on maps until 1950.

A letter to the editor in 1866 amused me as it was headed Mr Prince and the Waltham Hoax. The residents had agreed for the suburb to be called Waltham after Charles Prince’s house Waltham House. Sydenham is supposed to be named after Charles Prince’s shop on Colombo St which was called The Sydenham China Shop. The other theory is that it was named after his teaching academy called Sydenham Academy and this was next door to his shop. He possibly was bankrupt in 1867 and there was a meeting of his creditors. Surprising how many streets in Christchurch are named after men who had financial issues.

One business that I looked at was Urlwin Industries as I remember the business and it was a huge building right on the corner opposite Austin St. I hadn’t realised that it started originally in the central city until it had a fire in 1939. In 1946 the address for the factory was Langdown St. I do remember when it was destroyed by fire in 1965 and apparently many local residents objected to it being rebuilt. In 1968 the company was taken over by PDL and I think that the owner had either retired or died. The reason that this is so clear in my memory is that an uncle worked at the company and Uncle Harry also lived just around the corner from the factory. We would drive past the factory on our way home to Lyttelton and it was over the hills those days.

I also remember the gasworks and I am not sure when it was demolished. It was definitely still there when I used to catch the school train.

I started my walk today near the river and the first big building is the Waltham Swimming Pool. Then it is Waltham Park where there is street art on the toilet buildings. There are houses on the other side of the street and there are many older houses at this end. Where Urlwin’s / PDL factory used to be situated there is a huge number of apartments which were mostly built in 2016 and 2017. The houses then become a mixture of new and old houses plus there is Waltham School. There is also social housing. Between Brougham St and Moorhouse Ave it is mostly businesses. The house from 1880 is looking very sad but the one from 1890 is looking lovely.