Armagh Street – Named after the Anglican bishopric of Armagh in Ireland. One of the original streets of Christchurch named in 1850 by surveyors Captain Joseph Thomas (b. 1803?) and Edward Jollie (1825-1894). The names were taken from bishoprics listed in Burke’s Peerage. First mentioned in The Lyttelton Times in 1852 when 1/4 acre sections are advertised for sale there.A reasonable amount of information from the library website and nothing that I can add about the name of the street. There was a huge amount of entries on Papers Past so I concentrated on pre 1870. I normally also look at ads to see what businesses are on the street but there were so many that I gave up on doing this. In 1860s J W Moorhouse had a depot on the street and Mr Thomson was an auctioneer, accountant, land and commission agent. Mr Thomson was a busy man. In 1853 Mr Gould became an agent for Lyttelton Times. In 1865 the Police Barracks was mentioned and in 1868 the police depot was affected by flooding. In 1870 there was a new lock up. In 1865 there were many complaints about the footpaths and I have seen photos of Christchurch from the 1860s and I am not surprised that there were complaints. In 1866 there was mention that the doors for the new Provincial Council Chamber were made by Mr Detthier who lived on Armagh St. The Philosophical Institute had rooms on the street. In 1865 there was a lot of discussion about the closing of the street and lots of complaints. They were wanting to close it between Durham St and the river. At the same time there was discussion about a direct road to Riccarton that would go through Hagley Park. In 1868 there was a letter to the editor about the bridge over the Avon at Armagh St. Many birth and death notices and William Reeves was mentioned a few times. He was editor of the Lyttelton Times. Both Justice Gresson and Dr Prins allowed groups to use their paddocks for fundraising events and picnics. Many people were fined for allowing their horses to run loose. In 1881 Christchurch Girls High School moved to their Armagh St / Cranmer Square. and were on this site until 1986. Sadly the building on Armagh St was badly damaged in the earthquakes and eventually. This site now belongs to Christ College and is an empty section used for car parking. I walked from Rolleston Ave to Fitzgerald Ave and Christ college owns a few properties at the Rolleston St end. A few new buildings including the RSA building which has now closed. You walk past the the old Magistrates Courts and Provincial Council Chamber. Cross the river and it is Victoria Square and the new Convention Centre and I chatted to Ice Cream Charlie who was washing his van down. He has a permanent site on Armagh St next to Victoria Square. The original Ice Cream Charlie was Sali Mahomet who lived in the Avon Loop. Then there is Crown Plaza Hotel which is currently a MIQ hotel. MIQ is one of the new terms in our language which was unknown just over 12 months ago. Then I came to the block where there is a big empty section on one side and new buildings on the other side. One of the new buildings is The Piano a centre for Music and the Arts. I have been here a few times mostly for the Word Festival. The empty section is in the news frequently because of the endangered seagulls that have set up home here. This site will be the new home for the Catholic Cathedral. Then there is the fantastic Margaret Mahy Playground and I possibly know some adults who love playing here. The mini golf also looks like fun. The closer to Fitzgerald Ave the more residential properties there are. Most are apartments crammed onto tiny sections. Most are post earthquakes but some are dated from 1990s. A couple of housing blocks had a social housing look about them. A few older wooden houses have survived and the oldest is from 1890. The modern apartment buildings are really ugly.

Armagh Courts and nothing on the library website but it is on google maps. It runs off Armagh St next to RSA building. It is just a car park these days but google maps show it as having as least 7 to 8 separate sites. I have searched and searched to find out what was originally here with no joy.

Hereford Street – Named after the bishopric of Hereford. Named by surveyors Captain Joseph Thomas (b. 1803?) and Edward Jollie (1825-1894). One of the original streets of Christchurch named in 1850. The names were taken from bishoprics listed in Burke’s Peerage. First mentioned in The Lyttelton Times in 1852 when 1/4 acre sections are advertised for sale there. A reasonable amount of information on the library website and nothing that I can add about the name of the street. Papers Past had a huge number of entries and again I concentrated on pre 1870. The same names appeared in the thousands of ads. Mitchell’s Repository would have been the most frequent and they seemed to deal with livestock and the products of livestock. Edd’s Repository was also on this street and a further ad gave me more information of William Edd’s horse repository. Hill’s Veterinary Infirmary moved to the street in 1866 and it sounded like Thomas Hill lived at the premises as well going from the birth notices. C W Turner was a wholesaler for alcohol. Harman and Stevens had an office here as well as the auctioneers Burnell, Bennett & Sprot. In 1870 H E Alport moved to new auction rooms on Hereford St. The BNZ opened in 1866 and a full description was given of the building and with the columns and other features it sounded like an impressive building. The police stores were on the street as well as a police station. In 1862 the council called for tenders for forming and metalling the road. There were possibly other hotels but I only found mention of the Golden Age Hotel and this stood on the corner of Hereford and Colombo where the ANZ used to be before the earthquakes. I found a website that mistakenly said that this was the Warners Hotel Hotel but that was wrong. The hotel was renamed Hereford St Hotel. The Shades is mentioned as early as 1866 many businesses were in a building called Stiffe’s building. Would have been named after S B Stiffe a land and estate agent. In 1869 Bonded Store’s previously Louisson’s to be renamed as The Queen’s Bond. Wynn Williams the solicitor had an office here. Freemasons had a lodge and it was new in 1868. A few familiar names from the street were John Coker, Captain Westenra and Dewsbury. I walked from Fitzgerald Ave to Rolleston Ave and it is mostly residential at the Fitzgerald Ave end apart from a fitness centre. A few older wooden villas from about 1910 and one was dated from 1880. Many modern apartments crammed together and at least two blocks looked like social housing. The City Mission is on this street near an old church that is fenced off. A couple of big empty sites. The Transitional Cathedral ( cardboard cathedral) is on this street where a church used to stand. Walk past Latimer Square and there is a huge number of brand new apartments and again they are crammed together. As you get closer to the city centre there is the new parking building plus shops. On the old BNZ building site is the Spark building. Cross the road and the old ANZ site is still an empty section. The Ibis Hotel is practically next door to the old ANZ and for those of us who worked in the ANZ when the Ibis was being built must remember how our building shook when they were pile driving. The Telecom building was next to the Ibis and I remember it as the Post Office in the 1970s. On the opposite site there are new buildings and shops and I was too busy trying not to trip over the fake homeless who sit there begging to remember what the new shops are. The businesses that I remember from pre earthquake are the Boardroom Cafe and Drexels as we often visited them. There was an arcade that went through to Cashel Mall and the only shop that I remember was the sandwich shop. I used to buy lovely roast pork sandwiches every chemo week in 2005 for my lunch. Never felt well enough in the morning before going to work to make my lunch. Then there was a building housing a government dept and it was possibly Internal Affairs. A bit further along was the older wooden building called Shands Emporium which has now been moved to Manchester St. I vaguely recall that years ago the building housed an eye specialist but can’t remember what business was in it in later years. On the corner of Hereford St and Oxford Tce there are new building housing restaurants but I remember Couplands Bakery being here. I used to visit the bakery on my way home on a Friday night as they reduced the sandwiches to half price and sometimes if I was lucky I got free sandwiches. I was saving up to go travelling and I wasn’t too proud to turn down free sandwiches. Cross the bridge and there are new buildings where the Police Station used to be. On the opposite side is the Christchurch City Council Civic Offices and when it was the postal centre it used to have the PO Boxes here. Cross Montreal St and there is the building that used to be Dux de Lux and the Art Centre. On the other side is the YHA and and few older houses and then finally the YMCA. They are working on the YMCA at the moment and it is closed to the public including the coffee shop in the building.

Tramway Lane formerly Hereford Place. On Worcester Street just to the west of the old Government Buildings. It runs to the south. The modern central city tramway runs along it. A small amount of information from the library website. The earliest mention that I could find on Papers Past was in 1902 when a company called Birmingham Plating Works was mentioned. Some of the other businesses mentioned were H A Logan office furniture, Textile Sack and Bag Co, and A Hughes and Co a hat company. In 1920s and 1930s there were at least three car companies. Dobson Garage, O’Rourke’s Garage and Provincial Motor Co. In 1929 there was a fire bug active in Christchurch and businesses on this street were hit hard especially the soft goods company Ambler and Co which was next to Dobson’s Garage which was also set on fire. Blue Stars Taxis were here in the 1930s. In 1940 a new industry Table Salt NZ Ltd was set up and producing Cascade Iodised Table Salt. In 1904 there was a complaint about the street due to the dirty state of it. In 1925 there was mention of duplicate street names and there was a request for name suggestions. It was still being called Hereford Place into the 1940s. I couldn’t find any mention of the name Tramway Lane and even with googling I couldn’t find out when it got renamed. When googling I found mention of 8 Tramway Lane that was supposed to have been built in 1888 for auctioneer Francis Tabart that covered the block between Manchester St and Tramway Lane but nothing on Papers Past about this building. The building was demolished after the earthquakes. Francis Tabart ran his business from 146 Cashel Street. There was a right of way that ran from Hereford Place to Cathedral Square and it was at the back of the Old Government Building that was on Worcester St. It was named Customs Lane in 1929 but the only entries that I could find involved badly parked cars or stolen cars. This lane no longer exists and probably hasn’t existed for quite some time. I couldn’t walk Tramway Lane as most of it is blocked off and surrounded by damaged buildings.

Press Lane and there is nothing on the library website and this is possibly because it is just a right of way yet other right of way types of streets get mentioned. Most entries on Papers Past are ads from the 1930s and 1940s. There was Press Lane Furniture Factory and it was also called A D Tucker Ltd. The company was registered in 1935 but by November 1937 the company went into voluntary winding up and William Samuel Newburgh was appointed as liquidator. In 1938 there were several judgments against the company and also in 1938 the premises were available to let and the street was described as The Press right of way. A D Tucker in May 1943 appealed against being called up for service and his occupation was sine die. I had to google this and basically another word for bankrupt. In 1938 another furniture company Barrs Ltd moved into the street on a temporary basis to sell off all goods in a Gigantic Closing Down Sale. In Papers Past dated 25th May 1936 there was an article about the 75th anniversary of The Press. In the article it mentions that they moved to the current site in 1909. I found at least two entries on google that claimed The Press purchased Warner’s Hotel in 1943 to get access to the lane but the lane is showed on a maps in 1926. In 1877 and 1879 it shows as two short alleys with one leading from Worcester St and the other from Armagh St. The same pages had other mistakes about Warner’s Hotel. Look up a wordpress blog called Lost Christchurch as it has the best and correct information. The area these days is mostly a car park and the buildings have been demolished.

Strand Lane – Named after the Strand Picture Theatre which later became the Plaza A right-of-way between Hereford Street and Cathedral Square. It ran alongside the Strand Picture Theatre. The theatre was opened in 1917. The land was acquired by the City Council in 1925 as it was thought it would provide access to the women’s rest rooms from Hereford street. Named in 1929.A reasonable amount of information from the library website. In 1929 Papers Past mentioned the naming of the right of way but it sounds like it had been used as a right of way for many years. There were complaints about it being closed during 1931 while the women’s restrooms were being built. There were many shops mentioned in the 1930s and some of them were Peacocks, Majestic Radio Agency, La Moderne, and a dolls hospital. I obviously didn’t walk this lane as it no longer exists. My memories of the lane is from my days of working at the ANZ that was next to the lane. There was still a restroom in the lane when I worked here and I also remember the shop Strands Bags.

Shands Lane and it is too new to be on the library website. It is a right of way that runs behind the restaurants and bars on Oxford Terrace. It runs from Hereford St to Cashel St and it is probably named after Shand’s Emporium. Shand’s Emporium was on Hereford St close to where this new lane is. Shand’s Emporium was in an old wooden building and was moved to Manchester St. We lost so many historic buildings that it was great to have one saved.

Gloucester Street – Named after Gloucester, an English bishopric. One of the original streets of Christchurch named in 1850 by surveyors Captain Joseph Thomas (b. 1803?) and Edward Jollie (1825-1894). The names were taken from bishoprics listed in Burke’s Peerage. First mentioned in The Lyttelton Times in 1852 when 1/4 acre sections are advertised for sale there. A reasonable amount of information from the library website and nothing that I can add about the name of the street. Papers Past had a huge amount of entries so I mostly concentrated on the years before 1870.Some of the businesses on the street were F & E Pavitts Timber Yard, Mr Neeves Depot and Gas Company. A few shops such as Smith , Raikes & Co, W H Hargreaves and Nesbit’s Shop. John Coe had a shop and house called Albion House. A few hotels mentioned such as Central Hotel and Shakespeare Hotel. In 1865 there was a public notice about Lyttelton Times and that telegraphic information about shipping arrivals will be posted in front of the publishing of the Wards & Reeves. In 1859 Mr C E Cooper became an agency office for the Lyttelton Times. In 1865 the new Jewish Synagogue was opened and there is a mural on a wall where it used to be. It was near Cambridge Tce. At least one letter to the editor in 1869 complaining about the filthy state of the street especially near the theatre. In 1868 there were several complaints about the drains being either too small to cope with the water or choked with weeds. Also in 1868 Mr Coker wanted compensation for the damage done to his premises by floods and he threatened legal proceedings. It was declined on the basis that the grounds were below the level of the road. In the 1860s there were lots of mention of disordering behaviour including prostitutes. In 1863 the music hall was mentioned and by 1864 it was called Royal Princess Theatre. The current Theatre Royal built in 1908 is the third building for the theatre and on the opposite side of the road from the previous two theatres. In 1863 there was a long article about the money spent on the Gloucester St bridge and in 1864 there was an article about James Wylde who was the designer of the Gloucester St bridge. I walked this street from Fitzgerald Ave to Rolleston Ave. At the Fitzgerald Ave end there were a couple older derelict houses. There were lots of modern apartments this end as well and some looked like possible social housing. Loved the Gloucester – Worcester Park and they had bug houses here. Opposite the park was Christchurch East School. Then walked past Latimer Square and on the opposite there is still empty sections. As you get closer to the centre of the city there are newer buildings including Turanga which is obviously one of my favourite buildings. I am a huge reader. I then had to detour as the street is blocked by the new convention centre that is being built. Not everyone approves of this building. At the other side of the convention building it is the river with the historic bridge. Then on the other side of the river is the modern Deloitte building and I am not sure if I like it or not Found out recently that the design of the building represents the Avon River’s winding course. Then the Jewish Synagogue mural, CoCa art gallery and then an entry to the Christchurch Art Gallery car park. On the opposite side of the road is the WEA which is a building I am familiar with as I go to History classes there. There are modern apartments with names like Regent Court and St James Court. Cross Montreal Street and there are many lovely older houses and many of the buildings belong to Christ College. The old Girls High caretaker’s house is in very poor condition and the land now belongs to Christ College.

Peterborough Lane and nothing on the library website for this lane. It looks like a right of way and the postal address is actually 340 Durham St. It is on google maps and obviously named after the nearby Peterborough St. It has a sign saying Peterborough Lane but not sure that it has official standing as a street or right of way. Didn’t actually walk it as there isn’t a footpath and it felt like a private driveway.

Clarkson Ave – formerly Clarkson’s Avenue. Named after David Clarkson (1828-1889). Clarkson established the drapery business Dunstable House in 1854. In 1872 the business became J. Ballantyne & Co, drapers and clothiers. Clarkson’s Avenue first appears in street directories in 1885. Becomes Clarkson Avenue in 1962.A small amount of information from the library website. This tiny street runs from Cashel St to Lichfield St and there are a couple businesses here plus an empty section. It is near Fitzgerald Ave end of the Central City. Smokey T’s is on the corner of Clarkson Ave and Cashel St and they were very busy yesterday being Mother’s Day. There is one lonely house here but I couldn’t find out any information about this house. The style of the house would put it’s age between 1890 to 1920. There was very little information about this street on Papers Past and the earliest mention that I found was dated 1882 when a Mr J Carnahan was selling up his furniture and household effects. In 1926 there was talk of widening the street and in 1937 there was an application for a garage to be built on the corner of Lichfield St and Clarkson Ave. I couldn’t find more than 3 or 4 families living here. I can find no record of David Clarkson living in this area but he possibly owned the land. David Clarkson was a builder and a draper. This is a strange combination but it obviously worked as he was a successful businessman. David Clarkson lived at Dunstable House which was on the corner of Colombo St and Cashel on the site of Ballantynes.