Easy like a wicker chair: 1902

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We have digitised a rather splendid 1902 publication Tourists’ guide to Canterbury.

 

Transitional Christchurch – in Auckland

Christchurch: A Transitional City Part IV is that rather fabulous looking book bound in brown paper. It documents Christchurch’s transitional projects, street art, and pop-ups. Architectural designer Barnaby Bennett presented the session. I found it difficult, not because of anything lacking in him but because the session was really aimed at Aucklanders. As Barnaby observed: “You could put anyone from Christchurch up here and they could talk about it eloquently.”

There were a lot of questions and discussion on Christchurch “Crisischurch”: CERA, Christchurch City Council, Gerry Brownless, Ngai Tahu …

Barnaby showed slides of things like the Pallet Pavilion, the Think Differently book exchange (the fridge), street art featuring bandaids, and even our own Central Library Peterborough got a look in.

I thought Barnaby’s observation that “Temporary things stay much longer and start to inscribe patterns of behaviour” was a valid one. We have certainly seen that happening. He mentioned that “things go into a liquid state before they start freezing” and that these transitional things are “crystallising”.

A challenging session and one that brought out to me that all of New Zealand needs to get a clue about what is happening in Christchurch. As Barnaby said,  game playing in Auckland is based on what has been gotten away with in Christchurch.

He ended by saying:

Christchurch has brought out to me the lack of solidarity in New Zealand.

 

Christchurch – this week in history (20 May – 26 May)

May 20, 1861

Gold discovered in Gabriels Gully, Otago. As with other discoveries, the ensuing gold rush depleted the city of its more adventurous young men.

May 21, 1866

City Council abandons the vital city drainage scheme because of its financial state. A huge shipment of pipes which had just arrived from England had to be sold off. This guaranteed Christchurch’s reputation as New Zealand’s most polluted and unhealthy city for another 20 years. It is interesting to compare the transport cost of these pipes from Glasgow to Lyttelton – £882 – with the cost from Lyttelton by lighter and cart to Christchurch – £400!

May 22, 1868

William Rolleston becomes the fourth (and last) Superintendent of Canterbury. The 4 superintendents have been remembered in the names of the city’s “four avenues”, previously called the Town Belts.

May 22, 1989

First significant rainfall in 22 months breaks drought in Canterbury.

May 23, 1861

Fire destroys brewery and shops in Cashel Street.

May 23, 1960

Tsunami (tidal wave) causes water level range of nearly 6 metres in 2 hours at Lyttelton.

May 23, 1968

Visit by Duke of Edinburgh.

May 25, 1861

“Christchurch Press” appears. The first editor was ex-Superintendent James FitzGerald, a bitter opponent of the proposed Lyttelton-Christchurch railway tunnel. He and supporters began the paper to air their views.

May 25, 1903

Statue of Queen Victoria unveiled in Market Square, and the area is renamed Victoria Square.

May 25, 1969

First pair of one-way streets (Lichfield and St Asaph Streets) in operation. With traffic signals eventually controlled by a computer, this was the beginning of New Zealand’s first area traffic control scheme.

May 26, 1859

Public Library begins as the Mechanics Institute in Town Hall.

• More May events in our Christchurch chronology.

 

Templeton Hotel “studies the comfort of her guests”: 1902

Templeton Hotel (R. T. Day, proprietor), Templeton. This commodious hotel stands immediately opposite the Templeton railway station. The building is of two stories and the bedrooms are lofty and well furnished. A first-class table is kept, and every attention is paid to visitors. The tariff is exceedingly moderate, and there is ample stable accommodation. Situated on the main south road, nine miles west from Christchurch, in the centre of an agricultural village, the Templeton Hotel is a favourite place of call for travellers and visitors. The road from Christchurch is good, and a pleasant drive, or bicycle ride, through Riccarton, Sockburn, and Hornby, brings the visitor to Templton, whence the return journey may be made, either via Prebbleton and Halswell, or through Yaldhurst and Fendalton. Mr. Day is ably assisted in his duties by Mrs Day, who studies the comfort of her guests.

Templeton and Templeton Hotel, The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Canterbury Provincial District], 1903

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We have digitised a rather splendid 1902 publication Tourists’ guide to Canterbury.

 

Christchurch – this week in history (13 May – 19 May)

May 13-15, 1920

Visit of Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII).

May 14, 1868

“Lyttelton Times” publishes evening paper, the “Star”.

May 14, 1908

Municipal tepid baths in Manchester Street open. It was described as “the finest indoor swimming pool in Australasia”.

May 14, 1947

Mabel Howard (Sydenham) becomes Minister of Health, the country’s first woman Cabinet Minister.

May 16, 1975

Opening of Four Avenues, New Zealand’s first State alternative education school.

May 18, 1881

Christchurch Boys High School (designed by W.B. Armson) opens in Worcester Street. The school moved to the present Straven Road site in 1926, and the old building is now part of the Arts Centre.

May 18, 1940

Harewood Airport officially opens. It was soon to be taken over by the RNZAF for the duration of the war.

• More May events in our Christchurch chronology.

 

“Licensed dealers in game” and the Parker-Hulme connection: Dennis Bros: 1902

Dennis Bros has an interesting Parker-Hulme murder connection:

By 1936, Honora Parker and Herbert Rieper had moved to Christchurch, NZ, living as husband and wife on Mathesons Road in the Phillipstown area of the city, described as “industrial” by Glamuzina and Laurie, but in many respects it seems to have become Honora and Herbert’s ‘neighbourhood’. Mathesons Road lies outside the eastern border of the old town, a couple of blocks north of Lancaster Park and the railway tracks. Hereford St, where Herbert Rieper managed Dennis Brothers’ Fish Supply, was two blocks to the north. (Heavenly Creatures)

Honora was murdered by Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme on 22 June 1954.

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We have digitised a rather splendid 1902 publication Tourists’ guide to Canterbury.

 

Christchurch – this week in history (6 May – 12 May)

May 6, 1939

New Municipal Electricity Department building opens.

May 7, 1917

Canterbury Aviation Company makes first flights from Sockburn Aerodrome, New Zealand’s first airport.

May 8, 1945

V.E. (Victory in Europe) day celebrations.

May 8, 1975

New Zealand’s first mini roundabout in operation at the corner of Riccarton Road and Deans Avenue.

May 8, 1981

Go-ahead given for National Sports Training Centre at Q.E.II Park.

May 8, 1987

Sir Neil Isaac, founder of Peacock Springs Conservation Park dies.

May 9, 1915

Christchurch tennis star (4 times Wimbledon champion) Captain A. F. Wilding killed in action in Belgium.

May 10, 1975

Ms Vicki Buck becomes the city’s (and New Zealand’s) youngest ever City Councillor at 19.

May 11, 1891

Sumner Borough formed.

May 11, 1908

Colosseum becomes the city’s first picture theatre. The building was claimed to have the largest wooden span in New Zealand. It had previously been a skating rink, a boot factory and a cab stand. See also 1932.

• More May events in our Christchurch chronology.

 

Balloon D’Essai and the Haemogoblins at the Gladstone, 1983: Picturing Canterbury

• 1980s Christchurch rock posters
• Music photos
• More local pictures on the blog
• Browse our image collection

 

Christchurch – this week in history (29 April – 5 May)

29 April 1925
Rev J.K. Archer becomes Mayor of Christchurch, New Zealand’s first Labour mayor.

29 April 1934
Visit by George Bernard Shaw. He gave a nationwide radio broadcast from his civic reception in Christchurch.

29 April 1974
Cr. David Caygill, aged 25, becomes the city’s youngest ever acting Mayor (for 5 days).

30 April 1875
New library building completed on the corner of Cambridge Terrace and Hereford Street. Designed by W.B. Armson.

30 April 1971
6000 protesters march against the war in Vietnam.

3 May 1985
6,000 Christchurch citizens rally against the All Black tour of South Africa.
View our collection of protest posters.

4 May 1932
Christchurch Tramway strike. One of the bitterest in the city’s history, it lasted 16 days. There were many injuries and arrests among the strikers. The tram sheds were barricaded with barbed wire, and trams were fitted with wire mesh screens over their windows to ward off attacks.

• More April events in our Christchurch chronology.
• More May events in our Christchurch chronology.

 

Canterbury heroes: Picturing Canterbury

Angus Tait, Margaret Mahy and Elsie Locke: Canterbury Heroes.

• Thinking images
• More local pictures on the blog
• Browse our image collection