Blake Street in the suburb of New Brighton, Christchurch

Blake St in New Brighton – Named after Admiral Robert Blake (1599-1657). Blake was also an English parliamentarian. This name continues the theme of naming streets in New Brighton after British Admirals, explorers and fighting seafarers. First mentioned in The Press in 1912 when the New Brighton Borough Council decided to recognise it as a private street. First appears in street directories in 1916. “False assumptions”, The Christchurch Mail, 16 February 1999, p 15

A small amount of information from the library website and the link about the article False Assumptions didn’t work so I will have to visit the library. I probably didn’t get as much information from Papers Past as I could have but there were several streets with the same name including ones in Rangiora and Greymouth. The usual death notices plus several sections for sale between 1914 and 1920. A couple of interesting articles and one was about a missing 14 year old boy in 1948 and he was eventually found in Invercargill. The other article was in 1933 and a resident on the street had in her possession a violin that was possibly a stradivarius.

I had been geocaching in the area today and I then walked a few streets. At the reserve end of the street there is a huge empty section so I checked google maps for 2007 and it looks like it was a big block of social housing. The houses on this street range from 1910 to 2018 with a large number built in the 1970s. I liked this street as there were some quirky features with some of the houses. There were some ordinary looking houses as well. I was pleased that the older houses were looking in good condition. There was an art deco house which looked like it could have been interesting but it was almost impossible to see from the street. Some fun gardens as well. I am fairly sure that I knew some people who used to live on this street but don’t know if they still live here. Last time I saw them would have been the ex-husband’s 70th birthday as they were his friends.