Poets and Perfume: in praise to themed street names

Shanti Mathias travels advice files and papers to find out where the names of the streets come from.

In Sydenham, a suburb south of Christchurch CBD, there are some familiar names on the road signs. Milton Street. Coleridge Street. Wordsworth Street, which naturally branches on the Shakespeare Road. There is Tennyson Street, of course, and Shelley Street.

Walking around, or even just looking at a map of the area, gives me vivid flashbacks for the first year English literature documents at Uni. I’m trying to get to Yogiji Indian food store at 32 Wordsworth Street or frantically highlighting “I looked – and looked – but little thought” hoping that having many colors on the page will help me understand poems? I’m a wrong lap from Longfellow Street to Tennyson Street or dying about sending an essay with a comma in the wrong place in “Alfred Lord, Tennyson” [sic]?

After noticing a theme in the names of the street, it is impossible not to identify more and more. James K Baxter Place is clearly named for the poet. But are Manhire Street and Mansfield Street also named Bill and Katherine, respectively, increasing the representation of New Zealand writers among British dusty figures?

It’s not like that, unfortunately. According to the Christchurch City Council Resource of origin of names of comprehensive streetsManhire Street was named Bethel Prinn Manhire, a role and glazier who was also mayor of Sydenham. Meanwhile, Mansfield Street was named Kate Mansfield Peacock, wife of John Hickman, 1868-1873 Lyttelton deputy.

Many of Sydenham and Addington’s thematic streets received their names from the 1870s, when Sydenm was established as a neighborhood and the first students at the University of Canterbury were being designated Wordsworth et al for their English rehearsals. A Christchurch’s article Star The newspaper in 1909 records a mass renaming of Christchurch streets to avoid confusion. Inside the central area of ​​Christchury, there were “three church streets, a church road, a church track and a church square.” There were also many duplicate names, where the central city streets had the same titles as the streets in the latest suburbs, so that a mass rename was approved by the Christchurch City Council. Thousands of snacks like this are on the list of Christchurch street names, saving anyone curious about the local story of poking around Past documents themselves.

Most advice have some information about street names, although it is usually presented as a context to prevent people from named the new streets from creating pairs. Accompanies the appointment policies of local bodies – being consistent with a theme is a part of Christchury policy.

Auckland’s Street Name IndexFrom Aarts Avenue, in Manurewa, Zurich Place, in Leabank, has some blank and stabbed discs in the dark – “Winthrop is presumably a surname” reads the record for Winthrop Avenue In Māngere East – but it is also a great starting point to learn about local history. He reveals many themed names as well, from streets with the name of birds in Point Chevalier (Moa, Huia, Kiwi and Tui) to the subdivision of Bush Plan where the roads are Named after all blacks who played for Auckland or Blues (Michael Jones, Frank Bnce, Eroni Clarke, ofisa Tonu’u, Robin Brooke).

Some newer developments have patterns to Zanier for street names. Clover Park in Auckland has a set of streets named for Perfume and makeup manufacturers, Some incorrect. The effect is similar to free taxes, while severely late jet. There is Diorella Drive, Arden Court and my favorite place, Shalimar.

It is fun to read the speculation on the Auckland Council website about the names -inspired names of a Bush Flat section. Mission Heights Drive may be “Quasi-Californian”, but it is “probably a reference to the New Zealand Mission Estate winery, established in Hawkes Bay by the French missionaries in 1851”. Someone was definitely reading the Road Appointment Guidelines With some tips in front of them: the nearby streets are named Vin Alto, Brancott, Fairhill and Leburn – certainly an error of spelling Le brun.

In Wellington, there is no unique list of origins of the street name, but a great context in the city council “Intelligent streetSeries of his resident historian. Many suburbs have thematic names: the streets in Khandallah are named parts of India (Delhi, Punjab, Calcutta), the streets in Island Bay are named Rivers (Tiber, Rhine, Thames, Danube) and Streets in Brooklyn after the American presidents. Underdevelopors and advice from the city have fun with it between the fresh asphalt and the drying paint in the resource consent.

Obviously, there is another side of the naming streets: since a name is established, it is difficult to change, even if it is necessary. Maori Road in Takaka has been changed From Black Maori Road in the 1960s, when residents complained that he was named an insult. The Rua Te Wharepōuri of Wellington in Berhampore has changed “Waripori” in 2020 After the residents raised concerns that the name was an error of spelling of Te Wharepōuri, a ngāti tāwhirikura and te āti awa -chief who signed you the Waitangi in 1840 in Wellington Harbor. However, the original signal had to stay awake for some time later, as seen in this photo From Wellington City Council files, to avoid confusion if, for example, emergency services had to access the street and could not find out where to go due to the name change.

This should not prevent cities from renamed roads, especially becoming the clearest things. Speaking like someone who once left a bus at Church Street, Onehunga, when I should leave that Same bus At Church Road, Māngere Bridge, I think there are limits to use Geographical or municipal characteristics such as road names Clearly, the repetition of the names of the “Church” is not just a problem of the nineteenth century. Maybe some of the hundreds Park, beach, church, bridge, mills and streets and streets could be replaced by something new or something thematic. New Zealand writers, perhaps. Members of black ferns’ Squad 2022 World Cup winner. Great New Zealand Snack food inventors. BirdsLike this, bugs or fish who won almost democratic annual competitions. Are the names of the streets of the local history-that are occupied mainly by distant monarchs and dusty mayors?