Norfolk Street in the suburb of St Albans, Christchurch

Norfolk Street in St Albans – Formerly Fisher Street. Named after Robert Fisher Tomes (1856- 1923). Re-named Norfolk Street. Tomes was a son of Thomas Bennett Tomes (1821?-1875). Fisher Street is first mentioned in the Star in 1879 in a report of a meeting of the Sydenham Borough Council. First appears in street directories in 1894. Re-named Norfolk Street in 1905 when a “Mr T. M. Abbott” wrote to the Avon Road Board asking for the name change. A Papanui war memorial street. [When the kerb and channel was renewed in 2008 efforts were made to retain the appeal of the oak trees so they could remain a WW2 memorial for the community.]

A reasonable amount of information from the library website and I will cover the Tomes family when I write up Tomes Rd. There is a mistake in the library information as the Fisher St mentioned in the Sydenham Borough Council meeting in 1879 is a totally different street. There were three streets named Fisher Street as there was also one in New Brighton. The one in Sydenham was renamed Fisher Avenue.

The first mention in Papers Past of the Fisher Street in St Albans / Papanui was in 1892 when the Tomes Brothers subdivided a property known as Scottston into 72 sections. There were also sections for sale in the 1920s and 1950s. In April 1905 Mr T M Abbott wrote in on behalf of the residents that they were prepared to guarantee the amount required for the formation of the street. In June of that same year Mr T M Abbott requested the name change to Norfolk St. I couldn’t find a reason for the Norfolk name as there didn’t seem to be a connection to Norfolk for the Abbott family. The Abbott family owned a business called Exeter Nursery in Papanui Rd. There were several death notices including a very young child who was the young son of Thomas Mason Abbott. I needed to check the ancestry website as the cemetery database had Thomas Mason Abbott death in 1904. The Thomas Mason Abbott mentioned in 1905 is the grandson of the Thomas Mason Abbott who died in 1904. The young child who died was also Thomas Mason Abbott.

This street is a pleasant tree lined street and it is one of the Papanui Memorial Streets. There is at least one house from every decade and I managed to get a photo of the house that was built in 1905. The house built in 2024 is extremely ugly. I walked this street yesterday before going to my son’s house to babysit my granddaughter.