Bexley Road in Bexley Red Zone – formerly Lower Flat Road. Named because it runs through the suburb of Bexley which, in turn, is named after Bexley in England. Lower Flat Road is first mentioned in the Star in 1881 in a report of a meeting of the Drainage Board. It does not appear in street directories. Bexley Road is first mentioned in the Star in 1898. Bexley was named by George Thomas Hawker (1840-1924), a baker of St Albans. He named several places in Christchurch after places in England where he had lived. First appears in street directories in 1911.
A reasonable amount of information from the library website. Papers Past also had a reasonable of information. Lots of death notices plus it was a road that had lots of accidents on it. As Lower Flat Rd it was mentioned in 1881 when there were ads for tenders to clay the road. The road was connected to Dyer’s Rd in 1886. In 1894 there was a section available to buy and then in 1902 there was two acres of land for sale and it was known as Barker’s Clay Pits. Last entry under the name of Lower Flat Rd was in 1916 and it was a complaint about the state of the road.
Bexley Rd was mentioned in 1899 and both names were used until 1916. In 1910 there were 17 sections for sale. The tram is mentioned frequently. Mr Yelland in 1918 was selling his land as he was giving up farming for health reasons. The flooding in 1929 caused a lot of damage to houses and crops. Poultry farms suffered large losses and the cows on a farm were in water at least a foot or more. There must have still been a dairy farm here in the 1930s as residents complained about cows wandering in the street. In 1956 land with frontages to Bexley Rd was purchased by the council for a refuse dump. Also in 1956 the Bexley Rd primary school was to be built. This one confused me for a moment but with further checking plus looking at older maps I worked out that the school was on the corner of Eureka St and Bexley Rd but then Anzac Drive was built and the two streets were no longer connected. The school was demolished after the earthquakes. In 1962 it was suggested that a memorial plaque be put on the corner of Bexley Rd and Eureka St to remember Dr L Cockayne. I don’t know if this actually happened. The proposal for the Woolston – Burwood Expressway was mentioned in connection with Bexley Rd as early as 1969. In the 1970s there was a riding school here and a reserve was to be built at 72 Bexley Rd and it was called John Hinton Reserve. In 1974 the council was considering selling land on both sides of Bexley Rd but it would probably be a few years before this could happen. There was the issue of the future realignment of Bexley Rd and drainage board plan to connect the area to sewage. In the 1980s the Samoan Assembly of God was mentioned a few times usually for funerals. It was decided that the mobile library would stop here. In 1989 several residents were upset to find out that the council were planning on developing a footpath through their backyards. They thought that it was their property but it was apparently a paper road.
Bexley Rd ran all the way from Wainoni Rd to Bridge St but after the Burwood Expressway now known as Anzac Drive was built Bexley Rd was half the length it used to be.
There is still one house standing on this street and I think that it is still occupied. Between Wainoni Rd and Pages Rd much of the land surrounding the road is blocked off by fencing. I hadn’t realised that there was a reserve at the Wainoni St end of the road but did find the John Hinton Memorial. I did need information from the memorial for a geocaching Adventure Lab. Cross Pages Rd and the road goes through open space until it comes to a dead end. I did find a wee footpath to walk on and this followed Anzac Drive.
Looking at Street View from 2007 I started from the Wainoni Rd end where John Hinton Reserve used to be. It looked like it was a lovely reserve. The houses were a mixture of styles and ages. A few looked like they were possibly from the 1910s or 1920s. Some of the houses looked very ordinary and others were a bit more interesting. On the corner of Bexley Rd and Pages Rd there was a large building that was fenced off and looked like it was possibly a power substation. At the dead end art of the road by Anzac Drive there was a huge big building and that would have been the carpet factory.
Between reading Papers Past and comparing old maps with modern maps this took me several hours to research.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 