Lismore Street in the suburb of Waltham, Christchurch

Lismore St in Waltham – Formerly Brotherstone Street and Leicester Street. The streets were amalgamated into one street intersected by Wilsons Road and re-named Lismore Street. Named after Lismore, a Scottish island off the Argyll coast near Oban. Brotherstone Street is first mentioned in the Press in 1884. First appears in street

directories in 1892. Leicester Street was named in 1898 by Harman and Stevens, land and commission agents. First appears in street directories in 1900. [Sometimes it is spelt as Lester Street in newspapers and church register records.] The two were combined and renamed Lismore Street on 1 September 1948 when 120 streets were re-named.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website. A few entries in Papers Past. There was an entry from 1896 that mentioned Brotherstone street as being a right of way that needed to be fenced off to stop cattle from crossing Barbour St pathway. Brotherstone was possibly a surname but I couldn’t find anyone with that name in Christchurch. Brotherstone St ran between Barbour St and Wilsons Road. In 1922 Messrs Forest and Perkins offered a strip of land to widen the road and they also asked if the road would be recognised as a public road.

Leicester St was mentioned in 1898 as a new street and the residents in 1937 requested that the street be tar sealed. The rest of the entries were mostly birth and death notices. In 1948 the streets became one street and renamed. From 1950s onwards the entries were mostly concerned with businesses. Also several mentions of Lancaster Park as there was an entrance to the park from Leicester St / Lismore St.

The part of Lismore St that runs from Wilsons Rd to Falsgrave St is businesses on one side and Lancaster Park on the other side. Obviously there is no longer a stadium at Lancaster Park as it was well and truly munted in the earthquakes. I was geocaching in the area and decided to walk a few streets at the same time.

The other part of Lismore St that runs between Wilsons Rd and Barbour St still has houses plus the Samoan Methodist Church. Only 7 houses here and most were were built in 1980 but one was built in 1920. The older house seems to be connected to the church. There was a decorative seat at the entrance to the church but it has a bit of graffiti on it.