Constructed in circa 1880, the two storeyed timber cottage at 18 Beveridge Street has architectural, historical and social significance as an important example of a larger colonial cottage in inner city Christchurch. It illustrates the pattern of early residential development in the north-east of the central city, and now forms a rare surviving heritage element in the historically densely settled residential area south of Bealey Avenue.

Formed as an accommodation road before 1858, Beveridge Street was formerly known as Aldred Street after the Reverend John Aldred (1818-1894), a Wesleyan minister who owned land in the area. It wasn’t until 1948 that Aldred Street was renamed Beveridge Street, after Lord Beveridge, an economist on whose 1942 ‘Beveridge Report’ led directly to Britain’s modern social security system. By 1877 numerous houses were built on the north side of Aldred Street, and some on the south side, but not exactly at the location where the cottage at 18 Aldred (Beveridge) Street was built. Land records show that John Young, a Scottish cabinetmaker, purchased the section in November 1880 from Aldred for £105 and took out a mortgage for £200 at the same time, with another mortgage the following year. Young may have already been renting nearby, as he is recorded as residing on Aldred Street in 1878-9.

Fronting the south side of Beveridge Street, set behind tall shrubbery, the cottage is a plain two-storeyed weatherboard building with sash windows. The pitched roof is replacement corrugated steel which covers the lean-to at the rear. The cottage has a high degree of external integrity but the interior has been altered, including the replacement of the original stair and the removal of interior walls on the ground floor.

John Young’s offspring appear to have included daughters Elizabeth (born 1877), Margaret (born July 1879), and Helen Anderson Young, who was born in January 1880. John Young lived in the cottage until his death in 1904, and partial ownership remained in the family for many years, through until the 1960s. In 1925 it was jointly owned by Grace Young and Helen Anderson Chittenden (née Young) wife of Morris Chittenden, storeman. Morris and Helen lived in the house, and after Morris’s death in 1932, Helen remained there until the late 1950s/early 1960s and often let out two or three of the rooms. Morris and Helen did not have children but other relatives, the Morcoms, appear to have resided for some of the time when the Chittendens were there. In 1962 ownership transferred to George Young Morcom and another family member, a nephew, Pax Denman Shaw, as executors and the following year was sold out of the family.