Owles Terrace in the suburb of New Brighton, Christchurch

Owles Tce in New Brighton – formerly Part of Richmond Terrace, the section from Seaview Road to Union Street. Named after Captain Alfred William Owles (1848-1940). Part of Richmond Terrace was re-named Owles Terrace on 1 September 1948. Owles was the mayor of New Brighton 1927-1929. He was a member of the first New Brighton Council in 1897 and also a member of the last council at the time of his death. The naming of a street to pay tribute to the services rendered by Owles to the borough had been discussed by the New Brighton Borough Council as early as 1933.

A reasonable amount of information from the old library website. The rest of my information is from Papers Past. Captain Alfred Owles didn’t get a big write up when he died which was a bit of a surprise as I was expecting to see a big obituary. At one stage there was a discussion to name Mafeking Street after Alfred Owles but this didn’t happen as the residents objected to this. The street had the name change in 1948 after many of the local boroughs were amalgamated into Christchurch and became suburbs. There was already a Richmond Terrace in the Central City. I decided to mostly just write up about the street after the name change. There were the usual sections for sale and death notices under the Richmond Terrace name. Flooding was also a problem. There also seemed to be a lot of accidents under both street names especially motorbikes for some reason.

In 1948 there were two ads about the name change. One said Richmond Terrace from Seaview Road to Union Street and the other ad said from Brighton Bridge to Union Street.

The Powerboat Club was mentioned in 1953 and it got several mentions in the following years and decades. From 1960 onwards the council office and yard was frequently mentioned and in 1993 it was being redeveloped. Lots of ads in connection to the council offices and yard and it sounded like you could pay lots of your bills there.

In 1955 Mr Bernstein aged 80 was mentioned as he was still collecting stamps to raise funds for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children in London. The year 1955 was a busy year as they had flooding plus sewage was connected to the houses. In 1957 there was the death notice for Ann Louise Oakes and she was the widow of Alfred Oakes. In 1980 a reserve and walkway was being developed and it is mentioned again in 1994 as a wetlands walking track.

There must have been a gang house on this street in the 1970s as the street was mentioned in the court news in connection with assault charges plus kidnapping and rape.

The houses cover every decade from 1905 to 2016 but there are only about 22 houses here as they are only on one side of the street. The Avon River is on the other side of the street which is why there is occasional mentions of flooding. I didn’t see any mention of the river being diverted but when I looked at old maps the river flowed in a slightly different path compared to modern maps. It seemed to have been diverted in the area where the council offices and yard had been built.

I walked this street a couple of weeks ago before going to a geocaching event. I did find a geocache on this street. Sadly the older houses here were looking a bit rundown and none of them stood out for me. There is a Montessori school on this street.

I was about to write up this street on Friday night but received a phone call and by the time I got off the phone call it was late. It takes longer to research and write up the streets than it takes to walk them and I hate being interrupted when researching. I have made the decision that if I am busy on my street project that I won’t answer my phone especially as the phone calls aren’t urgent. Note most people know to text or message me.