Rutland Street in the suburb of St Albans, Christchurch

Rutland Street in St Albans – Formerly Chinaman’s Road. Re-named Churchill Street. Named after the Most Rev. Churchill Julius (1847-1938). Also formerly Church Road. Named because the Anglican diocese owned land in this area. Re-named Rutland Street. Named after John Rutland (1825-1897) Chinaman’s Lane was completed in 1889 and the street naming committee was asked to recommend a name for the street. Re-named Churchill Street in 1891. Church Road first appears in street directories in 1887. The streets were combined and re-named Rutland Street on 7 March 1904. Rutland was a builder and clerk of works. He built Craigie-Lea, a large house there. This later became the boarding hostel for the Christchurch Girls’ High School. He also designed the Wesleyan (Methodist) Church in St Albans.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website and there is a mistake in the library information. John Rutland lived on Papanui Rd and Acland House is on Papanui Rd.

For a change this street was named after someone who wasn’t a bankrupt.

There was very little information about Chinaman’s Road on Papers Past and in 1888 the works committee wanted to widen the road but Mr Harris refused to give land for the road widening. Between 1889 and 1891 the street was referred to the street naming committee for renaming. I couldn’t find out who Chinaman’s Street was named after. The only mention of this street when it was Churchill St was when it was renamed Rutland St in 1904. There was a Churchill St in the central city which is still there and all entries were about this street.

I possibly missed a few entries on Papers Past but there was a Rutland St in Auckland and this created thousands of entries so I limited my search to Rutland Street St Albans. In 1906 new culverts were built and in 1915 the street was widened. A couple of farmers were fined for allowing sheep and horses to wander. There were many death notices over the years. There were several accidents on the corner of Rutland St and Innes Road which was interesting as these days at certain times this corner is a nightmare. I am pleased that in the early evening on Mondays I am driving in the opposite direction to the long traffic jam on Rutland St. In 1909 permission to build a shop on the corner of Rutland St and McFaddens Road was declined. In 1953 a private kindergarten was opened at the Presbyterian Sunday School. In 1967 a dairy owner from this street was charged under the abortion act. She performed abortions at her premises until she was raided by the police.

This street now has a cycleway on both sides which makes the street fairly narrow which is why there is such a problem at the corner of Rutland St and Innes Rd. At peak times there is such a long queue of cars wanting to turn right that they block the cars wanting to go straight ahead.

The houses here cover every decade with many from the 1920s. Many older houses have sadly been replaced with ugly modern houses. There is one interesting looking art deco house on the street. I walked this street on Wednesday after WEA. I ended up babysitting my granddaughter on Wednesday morning and my son dropped me off at WEA and afterwards I walked back to my son’s house. Google maps said it would take me an hour but I managed it about 40 to 45 minutes.

At the St Albans Street end of the street there was the Rutland St Church. A bit further along there is St Albans Catholic Church School. There were then houses until near Innes Rd where there is a big building at Rugby Park and opposite there are shops. There were memorial gates at this park. Then there is an older building which has a sign saying The Oratory and I had to google it. It is something to do with the Catholic Church. Getting near the end of the street there is a kindergarten and nearby is the oldest house on the street. The house was built in 1905 and I couldn’t believe that I missed getting a photo of it so I cheated and took a screenshot from google maps.