St Monica Lane – Named to continue the street name theme begun by St Johns Street. In the Cavendish Grove subdivision off St Lukes Street. Named in 2012.
A wee bit of information from the library website. A new subdivision and my photo is from the park like area. Brand new houses but the gardens were individual looking with flowers, shrubs and garden ornaments.

St Lukes Street – Named to continue the street name theme begun by St Johns Street. First appears in street directories in 1981.
The same wee bit of information from the library website as for the other streets I walked today. A mixture of older repaired houses and rebuilds. The rebuilds were

similar to houses that I have seen in new subdivisions especially Northwood. I don’t know if it is just the one architect or several but they have an obsession with columns at the entrances to the houses. There is a wee reserve here next to what used to be a Samoan church. At least I don’t think it is still being used as it had an abandoned look about it. The gardens were more individual here which I liked. Got some good ideas for my place when I can make the effort to tidy up my garden but not from the garden where I managed a photo.There was a huge older house on a huge section and my photo just doesn’t do it justice. I ended up speaking with a couple who were walking home from the shops. They didn’t know anything about this house but suspect that it could be the original house from before the land was sold off for housing. They lived practically next door to this huge property and didn’t know if anyone lived there or anything about it. This couple liked living in the area and their house was on a street that had been developed since the earthquakes. They said that the houses are lovely and warm as they are well insulated. The house and garden was easy to manage which was important at their age. I didn’t walk their street as that felt too much like stalking.

After a bit of research the older house that I liked was built in the 1990s so not as old as it looks. A lot of work has been done on this property as google from 2012 has the land in a very rough condition and no fences. Also some of the land is now a new street. House owned by a local engineer.

Note it was at this stage in July 2019 that a friend suggested that I use WordPress rather than limiting myself to friends on Facebook.

St Thomas Place – Named to continue the street name theme begun by St Johns Street. Developed off St Lukes Street. Named in 1997.

A wee bit of information from the library website. I only managed one photo here and it just doesn’t show the scale of the houses here. The houses looked brand new so I am assuming that they are rebuilds. I don’t mean to make a judgement or stereotype this suburb but the houses on this street were not what I was expecting in this area. I hope that my friends who live in Woolston will forgive me if I say that Merivale style of house is not what I expected. I don’t know if it was because it was a nice afternoon but so many people were out and about in their gardens or garages. There were at least houses that I wish I could have taken photos of as they were amazing. Not sure I liked them but we all know that I do have a preference for older style of houses.

St Marks St – Named to continue the street name theme begun by St Johns Street. Named on 21 May 1972. First appears in street directories in 1981.
A wee bit of information from the library website.This tiny street in Woolston had a big empty section at the end of it. The houses were a mixture of rebuilds and repaired houses. The house I took a photo of I am not sure if it is a rebuild or the original house that has been repaired.

Mollymawk Place – Named “to continue a theme already established in the Brookhaven subdivision”. In a subdivision by Enterprise Homes. Named in 1999.
Small amount of information on the library website. Modern houses of either tin looking weatherboard or cement fibre. I ended up chatting to a resident who told me that most of the houses were rebuilds after the earthquakes. One photo is of a stone cairn with the street name on it. Many of the surrounding streets had similar cairns. The second photo is of a huge house that was on the corner of Shearwater Drive and Mollyhawk Place. Note I loaded photos to my Facebook but I won’t always be loading photos here.

Ti Rakau Drive -The developer said he wanted the name Te Rakau Drive, meaning cabbage tree, but checks turned up several different meanings for “rakau”, none of which was “cabbage tree”. Named in 1995

That was interesting information from the library website. A quick google gave me the information that Ti Rakau means cabbage tree. When I was walking this street I noticed how many cabbage trees there were on the street. They were in gardens and on the grass verges plus on the wee traffic calming islands in the middle of the road. Again the houses were tin looking weatherboard or cement fibre. There was one Spanish looking house with orange roof tiles but couldn’t get a photo as the elderly owner was mowing his lawns. There was an entrance to the reserve on this street.

Shearwater Drive – nothing on library website about this street. Many of the streets in this area had bird names, Library website had this area as Woolston but it was closer to Ferrymead. The houses all looked new but I believe that many of them are rebuilds. Ti Rakau Reserve had an entrance on this street. Houses mostly made of tin looking weatherboard or cement fibre stuff.Lots of well kept lawns and hardly any flowers.

Deyell Crescent – Named after Joseph Deyell (1867?-1936) – The stables of J. Deyell and Co. were at the corner of Deyell Crescent and Strickland Street in 1940, the year it first appears in street directories.

This is the sort information that I like to get from the library website as it gives a bit of history of the street.

I am not sure why it is called a crescent as is it a short straight street of mostly nice older house with nice gardens, There was just one wee problem and that is a leaking water meter. This is really common sight that I see when walking around the streets. The City Council keep telling the people of Christchurch to conserve water but they are wasting huge amounts of water by not fixing the leaks. The older suburbs are the worst and I suspect that the cause is a mixture of earthquake damaged older pipes that haven’t been repaired properly. Cars using the footpaths as car parks don’t help plus a council that doesn’t seem to care.

Riccarton Avenue formerly Middle Park Road and Riccarton Road. Named after Riccarton, a village and parish in East Ayrshire, Scotland. Named to continue the theme of naming Riccarton streets after places in Ayrshire, Scotland, from whence the Deans family originated.

A small amount of information from the library website and I have nothing to add.

Goes through the middle of Hagley Park and the Public Hospital is also on this Ave. The Nurses Memorial Chapel has been fully restored and reopened recently. They are still working on the new addition to the hospital.

I actually walked this for my project just over a year ago but I often walk here as I like to go to the Botanic Gardens frequently. I visited the Nurses Memorial Chapel when they were open to the public during Heritage Festival.

I remember being in Edinburgh and seeing buses with Riccarton on them.

Deans Avenue – West Belt and West Town Belt. Also part of Rolleston Avenue for a time. Named after the Deans family. Named by the Canterbury Association surveyors who laid out the boundaries of the original city within roadways called “belts” or “town belts”. The other three Town Belts were re-named in 1904. The suggestion to re-name the West Belt, Deans Avenue was also made in 1904.

A reasonable amount of information from library website. I have nothing to add here and didn’t bother to look at Papers Past as I feel that everyone knows about this family.

This Ave has Hagley Park on one side and a mixture of new and old houses on the other side. The modern houses actually look good and are probably very expensive. A couple of Tudor style older houses. Also a hotel and a couple motels. There is also a mosque. The old sale yards are a bit of an eyesore on this road as they are an empty overgrown section. Also found new street art.

Please note that I actually walked this street just over a year ago and sadly it has been in the news far too often since then.