St Vincent Tce in Cashmere – Named after HMS St Vincent, a naval training school in Gosport, Hampshire.Named during World War II by John Glasgow Taylor, a builder. His son, Sub Lieutenant John Charles Taylor (1920?-1943), had trained at HMS St Vincent, the Royal Navy’s training ship for young sailors at Gosport, Hampshire and was killed in an aircraft accident on 10 April 1943 while serving with the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve in North Africa. First appears in street directories in 1946. John Glasgow Taylor is a resident.[Gordon Ogilvie said in 2008 in an interview with Margaret Harper, that the information about the street name was given to him by local residents when he moved into the area in 1968.]
A lot of information from the library website and I couldn’t anything on Papers Past about the naming of the street. It doesn’t appear on early maps but neither does the nearby Merlewood Ave which was a street from 1914. The earliest information on Papers Past is from 1950 and mostly death notices. John Glasgow Taylor lived in Ruskin St until 1946 and then he moved into 1 St Vincent St. His brother also had Glasgow as a middle name and it was their mother’s maiden name. Half the houses here were built in the 1020s including the one that John Glasgow Taylor moved into. They have no connection with Thomas (Tommy) Edward Taylor who is responsible for the naming of nearby Merlewood Ave. I suspect that this was an unnamed right of way for the 4 or 5 houses that were here.
It is a steep and narrow wee street with no footpath. The houses are lovely especially the 1920s wooden villas. If a friend who lives on Merlewood Ave had looked out of her window she would have seen me waving at her house. The resident that I chatted with thought that I am mad to be doing so much walking but wished me luck.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 