Aikmans Road in the suburb of Merivale, Christchurch

Aikmans Road in Merivale – Named after Colin Campbell Aikman (1820-1906). Originally an accommodation road ie. a route for stock. Aikman was a partner in the firm of Aikman and Wilson, auctioneers and land agents. Aikman’s Road is first mentioned in the Star in 1874 in a report of a meeting of the Avon Road Board. First appears in street directories in 1887. Aikman is a resident.

A small amount of information from the library website.

Colin Aikman had freehold land in this area and he also leased a property in Cashel Street where he had a business called Aikman’s Auction Rooms. This was from the 1873 records on the ancestry website. He was 86 when he died. He was born in Edinburgh and he was married in Christchurch in 1864. He managed to go bankrupt twice and so many streets in Christchurch are named after men who went bankrupt.

The earliest entry that I found on Papers Past was in 1870 where two children were caught stealing fruit from a garden on this street. The children were 8 and 10 and they were put in jail. They were released after they received a whipping. In 1972 the road was shingled. In the 1870s and 1880s there were frequent complaints about the drains. There were sections for sale between 1876 and 1878 and then again in 1889 and 1891. In 1886 a site was chosen for the St Albans Side School. From 1915 onwards the school on this street was referred to as Elmwood School. In 1899 a Mr Ward Robinson was mentioned as having a nursery on this street. I will have to check the ex-husband’s family tree as I think that there is a connection to his family. The sewers were laid in the street and sewerage works were mentioned again in 1956. In 1919 a John Connal a former merchant died and I wonder if he is the person that Connal Street is named after. Polio was mentioned in 1925 and there were at least two children on the street with this illness. In 1927 the council refused permission for someone to open a shop in front of their house yet in 1932 a one room shop was destroyed by fire. From 1938 and through the 1940s birth notices frequently mentioned Nurse Haywards’s and Merivale. I found an obituary dated June 1945 for Miss Eva Grace Hayward. She was born in Napier but grew up in Akaroa. She was a teacher but then trained in nursing and midwifery. She worked in a hospital in London in 1936 and when returning home she established a nursing home known as Merivale. She ran it successfully for seven years until shortly before her death. She had continued running the during her three year illness.

Both 1949 and 1952 mentions plans to widen the street. A new building at Elmwood School was first mentioned in 1954 and it was finished being built in 1956. More sections for sale in 1968. From 1978 onwards there were lots of complaints from the residents about car parking issues because of the Mall. In about 1985 the car park for the Mall was extended.

Lots of death notices and ads over the years and also what they called social notes.

The oldest house on the street dates from 1890 but it has a high hedge around it so I couldn’t see it. There are still some lovely older houses on the street but sadly many of the older ones have been demolished and replaced with really ugly houses that don’t fit in with the character of the street. Most houses on the street were built between 1960s and 1970s.

I walked this street nearly three weeks ago and I started at the Papanui Road end where there is the Mall on one side and shops on the other side. Then there is the car park for the Mall and an entrance to the McDonald’s car park on the other side. Then there was an interesting building which looked like it should be an Art Deco 1930s house. The house which seems to have a business in it actually was built in 1960 and going by street view it was an ordinary looking house. Again going by street view a facade was placed on the front of the building. As you walk along the tree lined street there are really ugly modern houses mixed in with lovely 1920s villas. Elmwood School takes up a big section of the street at the Rossall Street end of the street. Parking is terrible on this street and I had walked to the street from St George’s Hospital so I hadn’t needed to worry about parking here. The street still feels like a very narrow street but that is probably because of all the cars here.