Claremont Avenue in Papanui – formerly Wakefield Avenue. Probably named after Claremont House, a large 18th century mansion near Esher in Surrey. Wakefield Avenue first appears in street directories in 1924. Re-named Claremont Avenue on 1 September 1948 when 120 streets were re-named. A Papanui war memorial street.
A small amount from the library website. I thought that it was highly likely to have been named after Claremont House in Surrey as the Claremont area near Timaru was supposed to have been named after Claremont House. I then looked at the Rhodes family who had owned Claremont Estate near Timaru and they were from Yorkshire. A quick google gave me Claremont House in Yorkshire near Leeds. Several streets in this area have streets names connected to the Rhodes family.
Very few entries on Papers Past and for Wakefield Ave most entries were for Wakefield Ave in Sumner. For the Papanui street there were just a few ads. As Claremont Ave there was mostly entries for best garden competition plus a few death notices.
I walked this street yesterday and made the mistake of walking it near 3pm. This street was full of cars parked up waiting for children to get out of a nearby school. At least half of the houses on this street were built in 1920 and the rebuilds since the earthquakes looked out of place. It is a tree lined street but the trees were on the road rather the the footpath which I haven’t seen before. I totally missed the plaque for this street being a War Memorial street which annoyed me as I like to get photos of the plaques. Still all the plaques have the exactly same wording on them.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 