Wairoa Street in the suburb of Bexley Red Zone, Christchurch

Wairoa Street in Bexley Red Zone – formerly Wainui Street. Wainui Street appears in the Methodist marriage church register in 1914 when Elsie Mary Hall of Wainui Street, New Brighton married George Ellis. At the time Bexley would have been popularly considered part of New Brighton although it was outside the borough. Wainui Street first appears in street directories in 1948. Re-named Wairoa Street in 1950. Information about Bexley/New Brighton supplied by Richard Greenaway in 2010.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website and I am not going to disagree with Richard Greenaway as he is an excellent researcher.

Papers Past had a reasonable amount of information and under the name Wainui St there were death notices plus information about returning soldiers in 1918. In 1921 the estate of Edward Elliott was for sale and this included heifers, cows, farm machinery, a wagon and a dog cart. The sale also included buildings and land. There was and still is a Wainui St in Riccarton which is the reason for the name change in 1948.

The library website mentioned Elsie Mary Hall who married George Ellis in 1914. Her parents celebrated their Diamond Wedding Anniversary in 1951 and they had lived in the street for over 40 years. They were married in Melbourne. Mr Hall died a couple of years later in 1953.

Flooding was a problem in this street and it is close to the river. In 1973 it was decided that land was needed to create flood protection for the area. Land was acquired from local land owners to create what they called esplanade reserve.

This street starts at Pages Road and looking at street view for 2007 at this end the houses were only on one side of the street and the reserve with a walkway was on the river side of the street. Then I came to the only building on the street and it is probably a pumping station. I vaguely recall that there was a geocache here a few years ago. The road then meets up with Morganwood St and there is the entrance to Bexley Wetlands Reserve. Looking at street view for 2007 the houses here were mostly from the 1950s and 1960s but there were at least three art deco houses. A few houses looked like they were possibly from 1920s or 1930s. There are obviously no houses here any longer as this area was hit badly in the earthquakes.