Quill Lane – Named in 1978. First appears in street directories in 1981.
A small amount of information from the library website for a street that I wasn’t aware existed.

Found a huge amount of information on Papers Past. I googled Quill Lane and Quakestudies had information from archaeological report after the earthquakes about a company called Quill Morris Ltd a cordial company that was on Dundas St. Papers Past had the company connected to several hotels but it went into voluntary liquidation in 1934. In 1957 the company merged with another company and became Quill Morris Cowles. I then checked ancestry website for the surname Quill and Morris with no luck.

I then found a facebook page for bottle collectors and apparently bottles from this company are collectable. Someone on this page mentioned the name of John Thomson Sutton as owner of the company. Couldn’t find him on Papers Past but they had the middle name incorrect. Quill, Morris Ltd wine and spirit merchant had seven directors going by Issue of prospectus in 1926. One of them was Charles Dickinson Morris so that explains the Morris in the company name. I have no idea where the Quill name came from. I found a second date of 1929 for the liquidation. The company restarted trading in 1936. John Thomas Sutton had the lease of several hotels including Zetland, Sandridge, Dunsandel, Hanmer and City Hotel. City Hotel is just around the corner of Dundas St.

I didn’t actually walk this lane as it goes from Manchester St to Welles St and at the Manchester St end it goes to the loading area for Smiths City and at the Welles St end there are entrances to a couple of restaurants plus car parks for the restaurants. Still like to know where the Quill part of the company name came from.

Mortimer Place – A blind alley laid out in 1873. At a city council meeting held on 5 April 1880 councillors were told that Mortimer Place has been “channelled, formed and shingled”. First appears in street directories in 1885.

A small amount of information from the library website. The earliest information I could find on Papers Past two items in 1881. One article was about the blind alleys of Lyttelton St and Mortimer to be taken over by the council. Second one was about Lyttelton St being laid out in 1862 ands Mortimer Place being laid out in 1873. In 1890 a Mr Connell was selling a large property with larges stores plus land suitable for cottages to be built. Property was on Manchester St, Eaton Place and Mortimer Place. This sounds like the same property that S K Bassett purchased in 1891. There was a death notice in 1882 for an Arthur Bailey. I couldn’t find anyone with the surname Mortimer in the right time line for naming of the street. What I did find was an article about Rev H C Harper and before he came to Christchurch to be the Bishop he was vicar of Mortimer and he also went to the school Eton. The article used two spellings for this school and they were Eton and Eaton. Might explain the neighbouring street Eaton Place..My research wasn’t helped by the ancestry website playing up.

A rundown looking street and it leads to Burger King which is near Countdown supermarket.

Eaton Place- The first sale of land adjoining Eaton Place was on 11 April 1874. The land belonged to Thomas Maberly Hassal (1834- 1879), a merchant. He and other residents of the street paid towards the formation of the street. In 1876 a petition signed by several ratepayers was received, asking that the street be taken over by the council with a special rate to be levied for forming and metalling it. Eaton Place had been “channelled, formed and shingled” by 1880. This is mentioned in the Star in a report of a council meeting held on 5 April 1880 The city council formally took over the street on 18 July 1881. First appears in street directories in 1883.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website for a small dead end street. Information from Papers Past has a mixture of houses and businesses on the street. At least two of the houses had names Tenby Cottage and Wimbledon Cottage. In 1897 there was a mention of Chapman’s Stables. In 1891 Mr S K Bassett purchased a large factory building covering the block of Manchester St and Eaton Place and Mortimer Place. In 1910 there was a fire at the store owned by NZ Express Co. In 1919 there were many ads for a furniture factory Williams Bros. When looking at nearby Allen St I kept seeing ads for Kaiapoi Woollen Mill and I thought that must have been a street with the same name in Kaiapoi but further reading I found out that Kaiapoi Woollen Mill have several factories and one was on Manchester St in the Allen St, Eaton Place and Mortimer Place area.
The street now leads to the loading area of Countdown supermarket. Lone Star is on the corner of Eaton Place and Manchester St.It is such a short street and I find it hard to imagine how all the old businesses managed to fit on the street. I imagine that the houses here were eventually pulled down to make way for the factories.

I still haven’t found out why the name Eaton as Thomas Hassal was born at Everton, Liverpool. He was a director of a company called Miles, Hassal and Co and they owned land all over the place. he was only 45 years old when he died of rheumatic fever on 06/10/1879. He was Imperial Germa Consul for Canterbury, director of Union Insurance company and very active in the church. His wife had a daughter 4 months after he died. He lived at The Oaks, Opawa. In Dec 1876 he wrote to the council enclosing a cheque for 45 pounds for forming the street. Amused by all the family trees on ancestry website who had him living in the Hawkes Bay at a place with similar spelling to Opawa. Mr S K Bassett was probably a property developer as he seemed to be always buying land. I suspect that the factory building he purchased in 1891 was leased to Kaiapoi Woollen Mill but couldn’t find the information.

Edited as I have come up with a theory for the name Eaton and is possibly a misspelling of the school Eton. There was an article on Papers Past about Bishop Harper which mentions him being vicar of Mortimer before coming to Christchurch. He also went to Eton the the article has two different spellings of school using Eton and Eaton. There is a nearby Mortimer Place.

Allen Street – Named after George Allen (1805-1871). Allen, a market gardener and carrier, owned the New Zealander Hotel. His widow, Lizzie, née Westwood, (1826- 1910) married John Etherden Coker (1832- 1894) in 1872 and he built Coker’s Hotel (demolished 2011 following earthquake damage) on the land she had inherited from her first husband. Allen Street appears on an 1879 map. The city council formally took over this street on 18 July 1881. First appears in street directories in 1883.

A reasonable amount of information on the library website. Lots of articles on Papers Past especially about brothels and disorderly houses. Also frequent complaints about the state of the road. There was also a nearby George St also named after George Allen. Couldn’t find anything on the ancestry website on either George Allen or John Coker. Lizzie got married for a third time but couldn’t find the details.

This street is now a business area but is mostly car parking. The library was in temporary premises here after the earthquakes. Most the buildings seem to be empty. It runs from Manchester St to Madras St. Some great street art on the street.

Rope Street – Formerly Lyttelton Street. Named at the request of the residents to honour the visit to Christchurch of George William Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton (1817-1876), in 1868. Re-named Stafford Street. Probably named after Edward William Stafford (1819-1901). Re-named Truro Street. Named after Truro, a cathedral town in Cornwall. Re-named Rope Street. Lyttelton Street was a blind alley laid out in 1862. Taken over officially as a public street in 1881. Re-named Stafford Street in 1894. From 1896 Lyttelton Street appears with a see ref. to Stafford Street. This change was made official on 7 March 1904. Stafford was Premier 1856-1861, 1865-1869 and 1872. Re-named Truro Street in 1909. Re-named Rope Street on 1 September 1948 when 120 streets were renamed.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website for a tiny street. In 1874 a woman was charged for keeping a house of ill-fame. I discovered the details of this street when searching for Lyttelton St in Spreydon on Papers Past. I suspect it was this Lyttelton St that was a hotbed of sickness as it sounds like it was a narrow cramped alley. I couldn’t find out how it got the name Rope St. I checked ancestry website and there were people with the surname Rope in Christchurch but couldn’t find out much information about them.

Can’t actually walk this street these days as it is at the back of countdown. It is off Madras St.

Barrington Street – Formerly Wilderness Road. Named after Wilderness, the home there of John Parker Marshman (1823-1913). Re-named Barrington Street. Named after the maiden name of Louisa Edith Simeon, née Barrington, (1790- 1847), mother of Captain Charles Simeon (1816- 1867). She was the daughter and heir of Sir Fitzwilliam Barrington (1755- 1832), 10th Baronet Barrington of Barrington Hall, Essex. Charles Simeon’s four sons, Philip, Algernon, Geoffrey and Hugh, were given the middle name of Barrington, in honour of their maternal grandfather whose male line expired on his death in 1883. Marshman was an emigration agent and head of the provincial railways in the 1870s. Wilderness Road is first mentioned in The Press in 1871. The 25 May 1912 newspaper article says all the property from the Heathcote bridge to what became Barrington Street was once known as Wilderness Farm and was owned by Lord Lyttelton. Re-named Barrington Street in 1885 at the request of Messrs Harman and Stevens on behalf of Sarah Jane Simeon, widow of Capt. Simeon, She said that as there was no longer a property named Wilderness there was no point in retaining the name. The next month the Board was asked to alter street signs accordingly. Captain Simeon purchased Rural Section 154, land in Spreydon. He held the office of Resident Magistrate at Lyttelton and Christchurch at different times. He was also the first Provincial Treasurer after local government had been granted to the provinces and was elected speaker on the opening of the Provincial Council in 1853. Originally ran in a direct line from Lincoln Road to the hills, but motorway construction in 1980 caused alterations in parts of Barrington, Jerrold and Edinburgh Streets and Taramea Street (now Place), resulting in Barrington Street meeting Lincoln Road at Whiteleigh Street.

A huge amount of information from the library website. I found the same information about the name change of the street on Papers Past. For a few years both names were used. The article from May 1912 was interesting. The information about Marshman’s home Wilderness and Wilderness was a bit confusing but after a lot of reading on Papers Past plus searching ancestry website I figured it out in my head. I didn’t find out who owned the land where Wilderness / Wilderness Farm was situated was probably owned by Lord Lyttelton as it was leasehold land. John Parker Marshman was there in 1854 before moving to Avonside area. Then a Stephen Kimber leased the land in the 1860s until he purchased his own land out at Greenpark. The next person was Cordner but he went bankrupt in 1872. Several ads for tenders for the lease in 1872 and instead of the normal 7 year lease they were offering a 14 year lease. The next person to hold the lease was John Grigg but it looks like he employed a manager Mr Straw. Before Mr Straw the manager was T Lowe. Confused.

This street is a long one and part of it I walk frequently.. It starts at Lincoln Rd, goes past Addington Park, then houses until Barrington Park, Spreydon Library and Barrington Mall. Several shops in the Barrington Mall area. The parks and Mall are all on one side of the road whereas the other side is mostly houses with an occasional business. The road ends at Cashmere Rd by the Heathcote River. Hohepa Home is at this end. The main entrance to Cashmere High School is at this end. The houses are from every possible decade and there are still some older wooden villas on the street. I was amused at one part where several houses had exactly the same dark blue painted trims. There was at least one toilet block style of house. On the opposite side there were two or three houses with exactly the same green painted trims. This is a very busy main road.

Lyttelton Street – Named after the Lyttelton family. From Lincoln Road to Edinburgh Street was formerly Hellewell Street. Named after James Henry Hellewell (1848-1919). Several streets in this area have names associated with the Lyttelton family because they were formed on Rural Section 76, 700 acres on the “Lower Lincoln Road, Heathcote Bridge” purchased by Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer (1798- 1857) and Conway Lucas Rose (1817- 1910). Spencer’s interest in the land was passed on to his nephew, the Hon. George William Spencer Lyttelton (1847-1913), the 4th son of George William Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton (1817-1876). The city section of Lyttelton Street first appears in street directories in 1887. Hellewell Street is first mentioned in the Star in 1897 in a report of a meeting of the Spreydon Road Board. Hellewell was a carrier and a resident of Hellewell Street in 1902 when it first appears in street directories. He died at 26 Lyttelton Street in 1919. Lyttelton Street was a continuation of this, running from Neville Street to Cobham Street. Hellewell Street was incorporated into Lyttelton Street in 1907.

A huge amount of information from the library website. The first mention of Hellewell St that I found on Papers Past was in 1897 plus in 1907 there were several ads for the sale of sections.
Lyttelton St gets a bit more confusing and I suspect that there were two streets with the name Lyttelton St.There were several entries for a Lyttelton St that was off Madras St South and near Manchester St. It was described as a blind alley. It was also near the railway station. I was amused by the several entries about a house of ill-fame.
There was an article in 1878 about a survey of Lyttelton St to check that it was in proper order before being taken over by the City Council because it was a hot bed of sickness. I don’t know which Lyttelton St it was referring to but suspect it was the one in the city centre as the narrowness of the was mentioned. My reasoning for this is that Lyttelton St in Spreydon in 1870s is unlikely to have come under the City Council.

The street runs from Lyttelton St to Rose St and has a mixture of styles of buildings on it. Many lovely older wooden villas still exist mixed in with 1960s to 1990s brick houses. At the Lincoln Rd end there is a big empty section where a supermarket used to stand. Another victim of the earthquakes. Further along is the South West Baptist Church, George Manning Retirement Village and West Spreydon School. At the Rose St end is Pioneer Stadium and Centennial Park. A busy street for traffic and I am not sure if I would like to live here yet parts of it I do like. There is a wee walkway where the Little Free Library stands and I think that it goes through to Windsor Crescent. Note I did find another Lyttelton St which is now Rope St.

Mountfort Street – Named after Benjamin Woolfield Mountfort (1825- 1898). Mountfort was an architect. Named in 1960.
A small amount of information from the library website. To say that Mountfort was an architect is an understatement.

Benjamin Mountfort would be one of our best architects. He was born in Birmingham and arrived in New Zealand on the Charlotte Jane. His first commission in New Zealand was the Most Holy Trinity Church in Lyttelton. This was a wooden building and was built in 1852 and demolished in 1857 as it was considered unsafe. I suspect that it was his inexperience with our local trees and our winds caused the problems with the building. He eventually became one of our most celebrated architects and introduced the gothic style to NZ. He is buried at Holy Trinity Avonside which was one of his designs but sadly this building didn’t survive the earthquakes.

Most of the houses are from the 1960s and are brick or concrete block. I didn’t take any photos. The street runs from Stourbridge St to Lyttelton St. Was a pleasant and tidy street but my feeling was that it was a boring street to be named after an interesting architect. I will now have to visit the cemetery to find his grave.

Dobson Street – Named after Arthur Dobson (1841-1934). Dobson was city engineer for Christchurch and also a surveyor, geologist and explorer. Developed in a Government housing subdivision. Name submitted by A. Tyndall, Director of Housing Construction, at the suggestion of the Canterbury Centennial Historical Committee. Named in 1938. First appears in street directories in 1941.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website. I was surprised that there was only one article that I could find on Papers Past about Arthur Dobson . Most the houses on this street are dated from 1940 with a couple from 1990. I didn’t take any photos on this street but did find a photo that I had taken of Arthur’s grave at Linwood cemetery back in 2017. The street is a dead end street that runs off Selwyn St but there is a walkway through to Milton St.It is a tree lined street but the roots of these trees have cracked the footpath quite badly so I had to be careful walking.I don’t usually say this about a street but I didn’t like the street and would hate to live here.

Hunter Tce – Named after Charles Hunter (1876?-1965). Hunter was a cartage contractor of 62 Colombo Street. Named in 1947 at the suggestion of the Heathcote County Council. The chairman Cr F. W. Freeman said that “the present creditable appearance of the street was due in great measure
A small amount of information from the library website and not a lot that I can add. Nothing on Paper Past but his father who was also Charles Hunter was mentioned a few times. Sadly one item was the death of baby twins. Charles was born 06/03/1876 and I couldn’t find a precise date of death or where he was buried. On the ancestry website there were several people with the same name and amused by the family tree that put Colombo St in Lyttelton.
I visit this street a lot of there is an entrance to South Library here. As well as the library there is also the Cashmere Club on the street. Only 9 houses and mostly from 1940 and 1950 but one from 1970. There is also a gun club here and I believe that it is the one that my late brother belonged to. The street runs along the Heathcote River and there are buildings on only one side of the street. I wouldn’t actually like to live here as it is the low side of the river and my personal feeling is that you would be at risk of being flooded.