Rosebery Street in the suburb of Spreydon, Christchurch

Rosebery Street – Named after Archibald Philip Primrose Rosebery, 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929). The earl was British Foreign Secretary 1886 and 1892-1895 and British Prime Minister for one year and 109 days 1894-1895. Land for sale in the “Rosebery Street subdivision” is advertised in The Press in 1901. First appears in street directories in 1904.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website and not a lot that I can add. Papers Past have sections for sale from 1901 to 1907. Also ads for new houses in 1902.

The houses on this street are a mixture ages from 1910 to 2000. Many are older wooden villas. Some are in better condition than others. A couple have had a form of cladding put over the original wood and they just didn’t look right and I didn’t manage a photo of the one that really looked odd with the cladding. There was another house that had been done up really nicely but owner was working on the house so I couldn’t manage a photo. Many of the nicer houses were behind high fences or had mature trees blocking my view. One older house looked really rundown. Decent sized sections here and I could just imagine a developer wanting to buy up as they could put so many townhouses on just one section. Hopefully that won’t happen.

Somers Place in the suburb of Spreydon, Christchurch

Somers Place – Probably named after Thomas Somers Cocks (1815-1899). Cocks was the banker to John Robert Godley and also to the Canterbury Association. First appears in street directories in 1943.

A small amount of information from the library website and I believe that it is incorrect. Papers Past had nothing on their website about this street. I believe that the street is named after Baron Somers who died in July 1944. He was the Chief Scout of the British Commonwealth from 1941.

I didn’t manage any photos here. Most of the houses date from 1940s and were wooden boring square houses. Right at the dead end of the street were newer houses built in 2000 to 2006 and these are on leasehold land and belong to Stepping Stone Trust.

Sugden Street in the suburb of Spreydon, Christchurch

Sugden Street – Probably named after the Sugden family In 1947 Frank Sugden (1894- 1979), a poultry farmer, and Frances Alice Sugden (1924- 1995), a spinster, are living at 77 Simeon Street; John William Sugden (1888?-1951), a shop fitter, is living at 143 Simeon Street. Frances Sugden married Gordon Frederick Beattie in 1948. First appears in street directories in 1950.

A reasonable of information from the library website and I have nothing to add. Most the houses are wooden villa style from 1950 but on the back section are more modern houses from 1990s and 2000s. Managed to get a photo of a house that looked really out of place. I can’t say that I like houses made from what looks like corrugated iron.
A pleasant street but I imagine that it could get noisy for the houses that are at the end beside the loading area of the supermarket at Barrington Mall.

Charity Lane in the suburb of Spreydon, Christchurch

Charity Lane and it isn’t mentioned on the library website. Going by the QV website all the houses are from the 1970s. Yesterday I totally missed this lane that runs off Domain Tce so I had to google it and I can see how I missed it. It just looks like a private driveway and it is unlikely that I would have walked it.Sometimes with these types of tiny private lanes I just don’t feel comfortable walking down them. There is no 22 or 24 Domain Tce and my guess would be that this lane was created from the properties at those addresses. I have no idea how it got the name Charity Lane but did wonder if it was originally church lane or perhaps someone’s name. I am favouring church land and reason for this is that it runs more or less at the back of Cobham Village on Cobham St which is church land. A friend on Facebook corrected me and apparently the Baptist church doesn’t have land the same as other churches. So I have no idea how this street got it’s name.

Bredon Lane in the suburb of Spreydon, Christchurch

Bredon Lane – Named after Bredon, a village in Worcestershire. The Lyttelton family seat is Hagley Hall in Worcestershire. 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). First appears in street directories in 1981.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website and nothing that I can really add except that the QV website has most of the houses built in 1970. There is no 32 Stourbridge St so this lane is possibly where 32 Stourbridge used to be.

Hennessy Place and Paulger Courts in the suburb of Spreydon, Christchurch

Hennessy Place – Named after Patrick Hennessy (1869?-1959). Hennessy, a platelayer with the Christchurch Tramway Board and later a market gardener, lived at 155 Lyttelton Street. He gave a large area of land there for the building of pensioners’ flats. Named in 1960.

A small amount of information from the library website and nothing to add. The George Manning Lifecare and Village is on this site. George Manning was the mayor of Christchurch when complex was built and he also had a connection with the Tramways as did Patrick Hennessy. George Manning was also involved in the WEA.

I will include Paulger Courts here as QV website have them on Hennessy Place. Google maps and list of streets in suburbs have it as a separate street. Nothing on library website for Paulger Courts. The units here were built about 2000. I found a John Wright Paulger living at 13 Lyttelton St and he died in 1927. Many of his family settled in Lyttelton and several of the family trees on ancestry website have John living and dying in Lyttelton but electoral rolls have him in Spreydon and he is buried at Sydenham. Possible reason for the name of Paulger Courts.

Stourbridge Street in the suburb of Spreydon, Christchurch

Stourbridge Street – Named after Stourbridge in Worcester. Stourbridge is near Hagley Hall, the family seat of the Lyttelton family. 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). First appears in street directories in 1909.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website and not a lot that I can add. From Papers Past inn 1910 six acres were sold to Messes Campbell Bros and by 1912 houses were being sold. In 1938 40 State Houses were built. Found an article from 1941 for Alfred Odering and Son.

The houses here are from 1910 to 2016 and there were lots from 1940 and when I found the article about State Houses that made sense.

On the corner of Stourbridge St and Barrington St there is a petrol station. There is an entrance to Odering Garden Centre this end as well. The houses are mostly wooden but a few brick ones as well. At Lyttelton St end there is a small group of shops plus an Art Deco house. One elderly lady had a lovely garden and we had a wee chat. Don’t worry we did keep our required two metres. Houses were a mixture of styles and one that was being done up looked odd and the new addition just didn’t jell with the original house. Might look better once it is finished. Near Lyttelton St end there was a pre-school.

Wychbury Street in the suburb of Spreydon, Christchurch

Wychbury Street – Named after Wychbury Hill near Hagley, Stourbridge, in Worcestershire in England. The Lyttelton family seat is Hagley Hall in Worcestershire. 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). First appears in street directories in 1905.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website and not a lot that I can add. Papers Past had ads for sections being sold in 1909 to 1911. In 1927 Odering Bros had a subdivsion approved subject to a strip of land on the northern boundary being available for a future Rd. Smiths City Market had a business here as well. Dated 1st June 1937 there was an aerial photo of the area.

The houses here range from 1920s to 2000 and most seemed to be wooden villas. Many are in the process of being done up. There was one Art Deco house. I would love to have got more photos here as there were some lovely houses but on a lovely Sunday morning the street was busy. So many doing DIY or mowing lawns. I liked this street. It runs from Lyttelton St to Barrington St.

Tulip Lane in the suburb of Spreydon, Christchurch

Tulip Lane – Developed at 15 Wychbury Street. Named in 1998. [The developer, Michael “Mike” Barratt had hoped that the street would be given a name with connections to his family. All his suggestions were declined.]

A small amount of information from the library website and I would love to know what the rejected names were. Couldn’t find any reason for the name tulip for this street.

I didn’t walk this tiny private lane and the occupants of these houses were all outside doing some sort of exercise possibly tai chi but not sure. Houses all built in the 1990s.

Note from a friend on Facebook. Cox’s Begonia Nursery used to be in Lyttelton St over the back fence of Tulip Lane and this was possibly part of their site. Edited to say that this lane is very close to Cherrytree Lane which was developed of Cox’s Nursery land.

Andrews Crescent in the suburb of Spreydon, Christchurch

Andrews Crescent – Named after Sir Ernest Herbert Andrews (1873- 1961). Andrews was mayor of Christchurch 1941- 1950. First mentioned in The Press in 1944. First appears in street directories in 1946. [Twenty-four single pensioners’ flats were built there by the Christchurch City Council in 1953.]

A small amount of information from the library website and not a lot that I can add to this. Only a couple of entries on Papers Past and in 1944 there was an entry about the building of four blocks of pensioner cottages. Ernest Andrews was knighted in the birthday honours in 1950. He is buried at Bromley but didn’t check ancestry website for more information.
I suspect that the cottages are no longer only occupied by pensioners but is just general social housing. One least one of the fake homeless lives here. Many of the units are in poor condition but some have been looked after. A reasonable amount of open space here and they aren’t crowded together.