Clark Street in the suburb of Sumner, Christchurch

Clark Street in Sumner – A street in the Johnstoneville subdivision. First appears in street directories in 1914

A small amount of information from the library website. I suspect that this street is named after a person but couldn’t find out who it was named after. There is nothing on Papers Past about the Johnstoneville subdivision. I checked Ancestry and cemetery data base for the surname Johnstone. I found loads of people with that surname but none had a connection to Sumner.

Edited to say that the street is probably named after Charles Clark a business associate of Harry Bell Johnstone. Harry Bell Johnstone owned 150 acres in Sumner but never lived in Sumner.

The earliest entry on Papers Past was about a foot bridge to be built in the street in 1905 and then there a house available for letting in 1909. Note Sumner was very much a holiday destination for people living in Christchurch especially from the wealthier suburbs.

In 1913 it was described as a new street running through the estate and the water and gas mains were already laid. The street was extended in 1913 with sections available. More sections were available in 1915 at £80 each. In the enlistment notices there was a Blythe Fletcher an artist who had enlisted. There isn’t a Wikipedia page for him but an art gallery has information about him. He was born in 1890 in Yorkshire and died in 1949 aged 59.

The footpaths were mentioned a few times and it was mostly complains. Sounds like they got muddy after it rained. The street received electric lights in 1923. several mentions of the street being flooded over the years. So many streets throughout New Zealand had the same name. The usual death notices. In 1989 there were lots of complaints about the noise from a skateboard ramp. The owner of the ramp said that it was a living sculpture. He had built it on his own property for the local children to play on. I don’t recall seeing a skateboard ramp on the street so it must have gone.

I walked this street yesterday after checking one of my geocaches in the area.

It is a pleasant tree lined street and the houses date from 1910 to 2019. They are a variety of styles and nothing too ugly. One of the houses from 1910 is a small cottage. There was another one that looked lovely but between high fences and trees I couldn’t get a photo of it. I wonder if they still get flooding as there is a drain / creek nearby.