
Before it was turned into the street we’re familiar with now, the area was once an open field, known as the Circus Paddock, which was regularly used by touring circuses that came to Christchurch.
From there, it became a skating rink, a boot factory, back to a skating rink, taxi stand, the city’s first picture theatre, known as the Colosseum, and a used car showroom.
But it wasn’t until 1922 when city councillor George Gould put the idea forward that it should be redeveloped into a shopping area.
Half a million bricks later, the Spanish Mission-style New Regent St was opened by Mayor Daniel G. Sullivan on April 1, 1932.
The shops in 1932 were slightly different to the businesses down there today.
There was a jewellers, hairdresser, art depot, musical instrument dealership that doubled as a tennis shop, a dressmaker, draper, fishmonger, ladies outfitter, boot repairer, pastry cook, sports dealer, grocer, milliner, sign writer, confectioners, a furniture manufacturer, and a health clinic called the Salus Pad company.
Salus Pad company offered ‘miraculous cures’ by way of 'electro-magnetic-therapic appliances, ultra-violet rays, infra-red rays' for things like rheumatism and arthritis.
Female businesses
Going against stereotypes there were a number of women running businesses when the street first opened.
Amelia Shaw ran the fishmongers at number 9 New Regent St, while her husband was serving seven years behind bars.
Two single women, Aileen Agnes O’Donel who was from Bengal in India and Wellingtonian Gwendoline Alice Aldred were the propriotoresses of the Kandy Kitchen at No 34.
The two ladies remained friends their entire lives.
One of the street’s most notorious characters was Madam Thora Galli, a well-known hair and skin specialist.
Thora Galli was probably a pseudonym for Arabella Ann Tate, born in Dunedin in 1884, and her third marriage was to Leon Clement Galli, an Italian born 'Electro, Magneto and Therapic Expert' of the Salus Pad Company on New Regent St.
Criminal history
The jeweller at No 4, Thomas Hornsby, had his shop robbed in a late night smash and grab in June 1932.
He left his shop at 11.30pm and forgot to take the diamond rings out of the window display as he did every night.
A thief wrapped a stone in a sock, smashed the window and made off with two diamond rings and five watches.
But this wasn’t Thomas’ only brush with the law.
A month later he was charged for buying alluvial gold without a licence and after that, appears in the newspaper several more times for similar dealings.
By 1934 he was charged with receiving three diamond rings valued at £30 (about $4000 now) from a young man by the apt name of Ronald Dempsy Crook, stolen from Henrietta Christina Murphy in Fendalton.
During the trial, Crook alleged that Thomas was his go-to man to sell stolen goods to, and that Thomas claimed ‘the police were no friends of his’.
Thomas pleaded not guilty and was acquitted, and he carried on in the jewellery business for decades.
A husband and wife, Harry and Amelia Bensen, ran their shops side by side at number 30 and 32.
Amelia’s drapery business, Junette, was a shop for exclusive Ladies' Wear Dainty Trousseaux made to order’, and lasted until at least the 1940s.
But Harry’s time on New Regent St was not so successful.
In 1933, a fire broke out in his display room at number 35.
Harry claimed insurance on £479 of stock but the coroner, after a thorough investigation, was convinced that the value of stock lost did not exceed £100 and that the "valuation for insurance purposes had been grossly exaggerated.
At the time, Jacobs was in financial difficulties.
There is no direct evidence of the cause of the fire, but the circumstances are highly suspicious.