Division St in Riccarton – Named because it marked the boundary between the jurisdictions of the Riccarton Road Board and the Selwyn County Council. “The division road” is first mentioned in the Star in 1877 when the Avon Road Board discussed taking it over as a public road. First appears in street directories in 1904.
A small amount of information from the library website. The street was known by both names of Division Road and Division Street until at least the 1930s.
Lots of information on Papers Past. In 1881 and 1906 there were sections for sale and more sections available in 1910 and these ones were known as Robinson’s subdivision. From 1914 onwards there were complaints about the state of the bridge across the creek and in 1926 it was repaired. In 1916 there were complaints about the herding of cattle to the Addington Saleyards but other residents didn’t think that it was an issue. 1928 a resident was given a permit to keep a pig. It is hard to imagine these days that this area was considered to be a rural area. Residents in 1936 requested that the road be tarsealed. In 1951 there was an obituary for Charles Buckett a noted gymnast and athlete. He also started Bucketts Gymnasium. He lived on this street. In 1956 Beaths opened a shop on corner of Division St and Riccarton Rd. In 1957 the subdivision at the corner of Division St and Riccarton Rd was zoned as commercial sections.
The decades of 1960s and 1970s was mostly about Riccarton Mall. In 1963 the Shopping Centre plan was before the appeal board. In 1965 there was a description of the planned new mall. In 1970 it was planned to extend the mall by demolishing houses in Division St. In 1973 a resident objected to the mall expansion.
Division St used to cut through the Mall and shops were mostly one side and car parking on the other side. There was one lonely occupied house in the middle of the car park and they were refusing to sell their house. I worked in the area in the 1990s and can very clearly remember this house but can’t remember if the owner was male or female. The Mall owners must have been so happy when they eventually died and they could get their hands on the property. Division St these days is split into two by the Mall with a short stretch from Riccarton Rd. Then it is the Mall before you come to the rest of the street. A few older houses from 1910s and 1920s near the Mall but they aren’t outstanding looking places. The rest of the street is mostly flats built in 1970s and 1990s. Lots of cars parked here as staff from the Mall use this street for parking. There is now a cycleway at the corner of Division St and Elizabeth St and this cuts the street in half. There also used to be a dairy on this corner but it is closed. I wouldn’t like to live here. The fake homeless man who begs for money at the Mall lives in one of the flats on this street.
I actually walked this street a couple of weeks ago when I was geocaching.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 