Brake St in Upper Riccarton – Formerly Church Street. Named after the Upper Riccarton Methodist Church situated in the street. Re-named Brake Street. Named after Robert Brake (1852- 1929) and his wife Margaret Ann Brake. The foundation stone for the church was laid on 24 May 1886. Church Street first appears in street directories in 1903. One of the five residential streets containing mainly workers’ cottages making up the area known as Peerswick. Re-named Brake Street by the Waimairi County Council on 8 February 1933. Margaret Ann Brake (1851?-1935), widow of Robert Brake, is then listed in street directories living at 8 Brake Street. With the support of Sir Charles and Lady Bowen, the Brakes had purchased land at Upper Riccarton and opened a shop, Brakes General Store, a coal yard and a timber yard on the site. Their daughter Charlotte ran the Upper Riccarton Post Office until the mid-1920s.
A reasonable amount of information from the library website. There were so many Church Streets that it was impossible to read all the entries on Papers Past. The Riccarton Lodge of Manchester Unity had a hall here from 1911 but in 1959 they built 3 shops on the site. There are still shops on the same corner but I don’t know if they are still owned by Manchester Unity. The Methodist Church is on the other corner and in 1961 they planned on using an old house because the Sunday School was getting overcrowded. When Robert Brake died in 1929 only his sons are mentioned in his obituary. In his obituary his shop is mentioned as having been destroyed by fire fairly recently before his death.
The church is still there and most houses on the street were built in 1970s. On one side of the street between Yaldhurst Rd and Leslie St it is only commercial buildings. The best looking house on the street looks like it is a medical centre. Personally wouldn’t like to live on this street.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 