Suva St in Upper Riccarton – formerly Greens Lane. Green’s Lane is an early informal name mentioned in street directories running off 40b Middleton Road 1943-1948. No residents are listed. Re-named Suva Street in June 1948 when 24 streets in the Waimairi County were re-named.
A small amount of information from the library website. The only mention on Papers Past about Greens Lane in Upper Riccarton was the notice about changing the name to Suva St. There was a Greens Lane that ran off Tuam St and that was the only one mentioned on Papers Past. In 1950 there were plans for a new War Veteran Home to be built on the corner of Suva St and Hansons Lane. This building will replace the Rannerdale Home on Papanui Rd. It was to be set in 9 acres of wooded lane. In 1954 there was a builder contract to build the new Rannerdale Home.
In 1950 there was a letter to the editor from a local complaining about all the new houses being built on Suva St. He described them as flat topped bungalows in 16 perch sections. He was also complaining about name change to Suva St from Bowen’s Lane. He said that the pretty little lane ran past Charles Bowen’s house. I tried checking old maps but none of them showed Upper Riccarton. In 1959 residents on Suva St requested that 60 trees on Labour Departments Immigration Hostel on Hansons Lane to be cut down or topped as they were blocking the sun from the houses on Suva St. In 1974 there were several complaints about the heavy trucks using the street. The usual death notices as well as a few birth notices and engagement notices.
A huge number of houses here were built in the 1950s and none stood out for me. A couple from 1940 and a few from other decades. Many were also built in 1990s and several built in 2019. The ones built in 2019 are called Rannerdale Apartments and are on land which belonged to Rannerdale Home. They are stark ugly buildings built on land which looked like it had been a lovely green area with gardens and trees. There is an entrance to Middleton Grange on this street and opposite side of the street is playing grounds for the school. There is now a big cycleway on this street and at the Curletts Rd end it is only one way traffic while they are working on the cycleway. It was scary when I was walking this street to see a car turn into the street from Curletts Rd totally ignoring the closed sign. It had to go onto the wrong side of the road to turn onto Suva St and there was a truck that it nearly hit. The truck driver didn’t look happy about such a close call.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 