Essex Street in Phillipstown – formerly Old Stanmore Road and Gordon Street. Named after Essex, a county in the East of England. Old Stanmore Road is first mentioned in the Star in 1870. Re-named Gordon Street in 1881. Re-named Essex Street on 7 March 1904. Among a number of streets re-named in 1904 and given the names of place-names in the United Kingdom.
A small amount of information from the library website. Note I have used the information from the old streets of Christchurch library website as the new streets information on the Christchurch library website has even less information. Yes I have found a way of accessing both old and new Streets of Christchurch information on the library website. Personally the old website was much better than the new and ‘improved’ website.
Most of the information on Papers Past about Old Stanmore Road were complaints about the state of the road and drainage issues. The earliest complaint about the state of the road was in 1867. The drainage issues seem to relate to a defective artesian well.
In 1881 under the Heathcote Road Board there was a request to change the name of the street from Old Stanmore Road to Gordon Street. I couldn’t find a reason for the name change but after checking the cemetery database I have potentially come up with a reason for the Gordon name. George Gordon was the first Town clerk of the city and he died in his 50s in 1875. Many of the streets in this area are named after his associates.
Under the Gordon Street name I have possibly missed entries on Papers Past but there was also a Gordon Street in Sydenham so I limited my search to Gordon Street Linwood. As usual there were lots of birth and death notices for the street. Sadly many of the death notices were for children. Typhoid was a big problem in parts of Christchurch and there were drainage issues in this area. Between 1894 and 1903 there were several entries about the female refuge on this street. In 1904 the name of the street was changed from Gordon Street to Essex Street. The council report didn’t say why but one possible reason could be the fact that there was another Gordon Street in Sydenham.
In 1921 Stacey and Hawker’s Bakery known as Essex Bakery started using the SX trademark. This symbol is on at least three buildings on this street and nearby Clothier Street. This business took up a large block of land on Essex Street and Clothier Street. Papers Past had hundreds of ads for this business.
In 1928 the new Essex Home is to be built and it will be built in brick and erected on the site of the old female refuge. This building is still there and is now emergency housing. Most of it fronts onto a fairly new street called Elmdale Lane but it’s official address is 62 Essex St. I had my older son here in 1979 but it closed down in 1980.
The map from 1912 has the street as Essex St but the map from 1879 shows the street but it doesn’t have a name on it. Between Fitzgerald Ave and Clothier Street the buildings are all businesses including a cafe. Between Clothier Street and Saxon Street the business Goodman Fielder takes up one side of the street. On the other side there are houses and most seem to be in reasonable condition. Out of the 11 houses on the street 6 of them were built between 1880 and 1915.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 