Carlton Terrace

Carlton Terrace in Westown links Bromley Place with Arundel Crescent. The other street in this subdivision, which was developed in stages in the 1960s and 70s, is La Salle Drive. 

It appears that Carlton was a name picked from a list of streets in the original Plymouth in Devon. In fact, Plymouth has three streets with this name: Carlton Terrace in Weston Mill, another Carlton Terrace in Lipson and a Carlton Close.

Fiona Norris, from ‘The Box’ in Plymouth (the city’s museum), explains that Plymouth was originally three separate towns which merged in 1914 to become the Borough of Plymouth, with city status being granted in 1928. Each town had their own street names, which meant that after unification there was inevitably duplication. Over time some street names have been changed to avoid this replication, but others such as Carlton have remained.

Plymouth has put together a guide to the origin of street names in the city and the author speculates that the name Carlton may have come from Carlton House in London, a mansion which was inherited by Prince George, later King George IV. The house was demolished in 1827 and the King died in 1830.

The application for the first part of the development of New Plymouth’s Carlton Terrace, together with Bromley Place, was lodged by Louis Grant Innes (1904-1985) and approved by the council in May 1964. Innes was chairman of the Westown Golf Club when it played on a course bordering Waimea and Tukapa Streets – now home to Francis Douglas Memorial College.

Innes and his wife Marguerite had purchased 13 acres of the club’s land in Westown for £2,350 after it decided to leave the Westown course and bought property on Mangorei Road in late 1950s.  

However, for some reason Mr and Mrs Innes did not continue with their plans and the approval expired. In September 1966 it had to be reapproved, this time on behalf of Waimea Development Ltd.

This first section of the subdivision allowed Carlton Terrace to extend to what is today the intersection with La Salle Drive. In 1976 a plan was approved to extend Carlton Terrace and form Arundel Crescent, completing this part of the development.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.

Related items:

Taranaki DP9666 Sheet 1 (1966), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP9907 Sheet 1 (1966), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP12433 Sheet 1 (1976), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)