Charles Street in the suburb of Waltham, Christchurch

Charles St in Waltham – Named after Charles James Wilson (1858?- 1898). Wilson was the second son of William Barbour Wilson, the first mayor of Christchurch. In 1894 “Charles J. Wilson” lived at The Grove. For many years he was a partner in the firm of Wallace & Co., chemists. About 1898 he and his brother Lawrence bought

Loudon at Teddington, land which was originally a portion of the Gebbie estate. He died in a shooting accident. In a subdivision of Rural Section 48, land owned by William Wilson (1819-1897). Charles Street appears on an 1874/75 Deposit Plan. Land in “Charles Street, Lancaster Park” is advertised for sale in the Star in 1883.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website. The inquest for Charles Wilson said that he was out shooting for quails for the invalids at the Convalescent Home when he accidently shot himself. Charles Wilson was a partner in Wallace and Co Chemists and then he went into partnership with his brother Lawrence. They were sheep farmers in Teddington until they dissolved their partnership in 1897. The other entry in Papers Past was when he applied for a prohibition order regarding his father William Wilson. William Wilson had a drink problem and was usually in debt. Several streets in Christchurch are named after William Wilson.

There were thousands of entries for Charles St as it was a common name for streets including one in Kaiapoi. There were several ads for sections in 1883. Complaints about the condition of the street in 1884 and 1913. The rest of the entries were mostly birth and death notices.

There are 115 houses on this street dating from 1900 to 2018. Over 20 houses were from between 1900 and 1920 and most were lovely wooden villas. There were interesting arty looking seats on the street. There was a playground at the Charleston Reserve which was on the corner of Charles St and Grafton St. I do like the older wooden villas but they do take a lot of money to maintain.