Merton Place in the suburb of Bryndwr, Christchurch

Merton Place in Bryndwr – Named after George Henry Merton (1855‐1932). Merton was headmaster of the Cathedral School and later of the Lower School at Christ’s College. One of the streets in the Papanui area formed on land belonging to Christ’s College. First appears in street directories in 1958.

A small amount of information from the library website. Not much information on Papers Past. There were several ads plus the usual death notices. The most interesting article would be the one in 1976 when the leases were renewed and the annual lease went from $65 to nearly $600. At this stage the land was still owned by Christ’s College. I did get a bit side tracked reading Papers Past as there were a few articles about Horatio Nelson and Lady Hamilton as they lived together in a house called Merton Place. Lady Hamilton’s husband also lived with them.

George Henry Merton grew up in Rangiora where his father had a private school. Just to amuse my friends I will add that I found in the court news information about George Henry Merton being fined in 1900 for riding a bike on the footpath. Yes I do approve of cyclists on footpaths being fined.

All the houses on this street were built in the 1950s and some were obviously from that era but others had been modernised. There is a walkway that leads to Jennifer Street. A pleasant street and I was visiting a friend here. It is a short street just in case my friends think that I am disobeying the advice of the neurologist about limiting how much walking I do after my recent illness.