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…
(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…
The underlying geological issues hidden beneath Christchurch’s swampy plains meant that the city’s founders and their surveyors who chose this site for their planned city, knew nothing …
In response to the loss of our inner city of Christchurch, we were inspired to create this website, Lost Christchurch, as a freely accessible archive of photographs, social history and memories of …
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…
During the year 1857, developments moved closer towards making colonial Christchurch a working city. The Bridle Path opening in March, provided emigrants direct access to and from Lyttelton, on a s…
“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, …
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…
In Christchurch Hospital’s busy, twenty first century entrance foyer, patients, staff and visitors hurry past a distinguished man immortalised in bronze. These days, many do not have time to …
One of the most famous literary figures of the nineteenth century to visit Christchurch, was author, raconteur, journalist and social critic, Mark Twain. Tired and elderly, yet a force to be recko…
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…
Beside Christchurch’s Town Hall, stood Solomon Nashelski’s hardware and ironmonger’s shop. Called ‘Melbourne House’, this small shop was later replaced with a permane…
Christchurch’s newest and grandest hotel in the first decade of the 1900s was the Clarendon Hotel situated on the corner of Oxford Terrace and Worcester Street. It replaced the former two-sto…
This charming advertisement designed in 1913, was printed onto postcards and distributed at the New Zealand High Commission Office in London to attract young, single women to the colony. Irregardle…
An elderly man, dressed in a plum coloured suit and bow tie, stands gazing at his nearly completed home. It is September 1900, and this is no ordinary home, it is reputed to be the largest wooden r…
In 1907, a former public house on the corner of Durham and Battersea Street, Sydenham, was opened as the first women’s maternity hospital in Christchurch. Founded by the Right Honorable Richa…
‘Ice Cream Charlie’ operated a well-known ice cream cart in Cathedral Square for much of the first half of the twentieth century. He was reknowned for his friendly nature and delicious …
New Zealand’s first skyscraper was built on the corner of Manchester and Hereford Streets between 1905 – 06 for the New Zealand Express Company. This state of the art seven storey buil…
The first part of the twentieth century was the heyday for the department store in New Zealand. The iconic department store, Hays, was a ‘household name’ in Christchurch from its incept…
In early October 1889, my 2 x great aunt, Clara Wright leaves her family home in Thames and travels on the steamer, ‘Tarawera’ to start a new life with her estranged father in Christchu…
One of Christchurch’s most well known and successful chemist and druggist shops was on Colombo street and owned by George Bonnington.
William Potter Townend owned Townend’s Chemist and Druggist Store in the Crystal Palace Building on Colombo Street, at the corner with what was Chester Street and across the road from the Oxf…
Alfred Ernest Lyttelton Preece was born in Christchurch, the only son of Hannah and Thomas, who ran a auctioneering and produce business. Hannah and Thomas, a native of Worcester, had come to New Z…
A large collection of human bones were uncovered on the corner of Cambridge Terrace and Hereford Street during the 1850s. They belonged to the early Waitaha inhabitants (1000 – 1500 AD) who h…
An open field along the west side of Manchester street, bounded by a row of well-grown English Poplars and known as the Circus Paddock, was regularly used for touring circuses which came to town.
Tiny British-made locomotive engines first began chugging between Ferrymead’s Wharf on the estuary and the city on December 1st, 1863. This was New Zealand’s first public railway line, …
The wide stretches of the Avon River provided a suitable stretch of water for rowing to become a major sport and past time for Christchurch residents. The Canterbury Rowing Club was formed in 1861 …
The Royal Exchange’s beautiful tower, dome and decorative facade is taking shape as the building nears completion. Fresh to the shores of New Zealand, the Australian architect brothers …
It was hard to avoid sinking up to your knees in wet weather in Market Square in 1862. This panoramic photograph shows Christchurch’s Market Place (later renamed Victoria Square) the damp ge…
1884 Outside the City Hotel, a stream of Hackney and Hansom cabs wait for fares at ‘Cabstand Corner’ (later known as the ‘Triangle’.) The year is 1884 and it appears t…