The Brae in Mt Pleasant – Named after The Brae, the Scottish home of Robert Taylor Smith (1891?-1956). Smith was for many years a motorman on the Sumner tram route. First appears in street directories in 1940. Smith is a resident
A small amount of information from the library website. A quick check on the Ancestry website and Robert Taylor Smith lived at 18 St Andrews Hill until 1941 and after that his address was 23 The Brae. He was possibly living in the same house but the address changed. Papers Past had several ads and death notices. In 1962 there were several articles regarding the status of the road. The situation had started in the 1950s where the council requested that they take over the road. In early 1962 the government had refused to allow the council take over the road as a public road. It was still a private road at this stage. It was still being discussed in November 1962.
This is a narrow street with no footpaths and very little parking available. There are only 22 houses here and two are from 1920 including No 23 which was Robert Smith’s address. I couldn’t see these older houses as they were off the road up a high bank. Houses cover most decades and several are recent rebuilds.
I did wave to a man sitting in the lounge of one of the houses and he either didn’t see me or ignored me as he didn’t realise who I was. Great views from this street but the lack of parking puts me off.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 