Ballantynes and Hobdays on Cashel Street in 1882 The Burton Brothers captured this softly lit image of Cashel Street, the main commercial street of Christchurch. The camera sits at the corner of Hi…
The first stone structure built in Cathedral Square was the small Gothic stone Torlesse building. Situated in the south-west corner of the square, the two storey, three gable dormer windowed buildi…
For the first Catholics in Christchurch, the purchasing of land within the city boundaries was met with great difficulty. Their first hurdle was to secure land from the Anglican dominated hierarchy…
Drunkeness was a serious problem in Christchurch by the late 1870s. It didn’t help that for a city of its size, there were 47 hotels and breweries as opposed to just 10 dentists and chemist …
“Of all the beautiful places in New Zealand – Christchurch is one of the prettiest. As the metropolis of the Canterbury province, the city has been built in the old Elizabethan style, …
Written by Helen Solomons In 1879, my great grandfather, Mortimer Cashman Corliss, was promoted to head telegraphist in Christchurch’s newly built Post and Telegraph Office in Cathedral Squar…
Oscar von Sierakowski’s factory and shop was built on the corner of Colombo and Tuam Streets in 1906. It boasted that it was the largest wire work factory in the colonies, producing decorati…
Before Christchurch had a morgue, the gruesome task of storing a dead body was left to Christchurch’s public hotels. On practical terms, they had the space to hold a coroner’s inquest a…
It is the year 1880 and Wilhelmina Arnst and John Christian Aschen have just married in the Deutsche Kirche, on the corner of Worcester and Montreal Streets. They stand outside on the street with t…
Up until February 22nd, 2011, the city of Christchurch was a unique, historic and cultural living and breathing entity. Inherited from a long list of valuable contributors dating back to its incep…
The streets are quiet – a parked car sits outside Dalgety’s, a lone tram rumbles towards the tram sheds and a tired delivery horse stands with his head bowed, eating chaff from his feed…
Cobb & Co.’s booking office on the corner of Cashel and High Streets was a hub of activity. Here the proprietor, W. R. Mitchell took charge of the bookings and service on this site since…
After World War One, there was a growing appetite for the glitzy glamour of the ‘Jazz Age’ and Hollywood. Christchurch residents were hungry to embrace American culture and its new comm…
By Helen Solomons Mortimer Cashman Corliss was a true Victorian patriarch, gentleman and government servant who lived in Christchurch for most of his adult life, contributing to the city’s de…
The impressive Bank of New Zealand building occupied a large corner of Cathedral Square and junction of Hereford and Colombo Streets. The Bank of New Zealand was first established in Auckland in 18…
The neat and narrow, plastered brick building of William Henry Harris, Tinsmith of Christchurch stood at 101 Colombo Street in a matching line with a set of others. Standing opposite Mason Struther…
On the evening of February 7th, 1908 the headlines in the Star ‘screamed out’ A DISASTROUS FIRE, HUGE OUTBREAK IN THE CITY, CENTRAL BLOCK DEVASTATED, DAMAGE AMOUNTS TO HUNDREDS OF THOUS…
The growing permanence and sophistication of Christchurch, is evident in this photograph of Lichfield Street. Taken by the Burton Brother’s, the photograph shows us that the little frontier …
On this summer’s day in 1906, the ten o’clock morning tram to Sumner is about to depart from outside the Royal Exchange in Cathedral Square. An excursion to Sumner was a popular outing …
Christchurch Described Christchurch, New Zealand, is called the “City of the Plains” for its streets are as level as a billiard table, giving the visitor an impression that each street…
Christchurch has a frontier appearance about it in this photograph taken by Dr. Barker in 1860 from the tower of the Canterbury Provincial Buildings. With little beyond the immediate streets, it c…
The red brick, cream stone and plaster building on the corner of Manchester and Hereford Street, proudly displays the architectural features becoming commonplace in the commercial confines of this…
Sumner Beach was the last stop on the Sumner line. In this intriguing photograph, we can see the goings on of a typical summer’s weekend, one hundred and six years ago. Hundreds of city dwe…
(From our correspondent.) Christchurch (N.Z.) Ten years ago I visited Christchurch for the first time, and recorded my impressions of the place in the columns of The Daily News. A decade means a go…
On an empty beach near Sumner, a young boy and his Irish Spaniel stand at the shoreline as the photographer captures the moment. Further down the beach, beneath the original formation of Clifton Sp…
This intriguing photograph taken at the junction of Cashel and High Street draws us back to a typical summer day in Edwardian Christchurch in February 1913. A summer rain fall has just cleared, all…
Cashel Street has been taken over by the new phenomenon – motor cars. This photograph documents the quickly changing dynamics of a street which once enjoyed a more sedentary pace of life. Ch…
The pace of town appears leisurely as pedestrians meander across High Street, while several trams slowly move past them c. 1929. There are a large number of men on they bicycles – perhaps th…
Here we look upon one of Christchurch’s beautiful public gardens which spans Durham Street and the River Avon. This photograph shows how carefully the city authorities went about landscaping …
The most beautiful quadrangles lead to the Botany and Physics Department and Observatory of the Canterbury College, University of New Zealand in 1919. In 1873 the Provincial Council passed the Cant…