Historically Important Photograph Indentified

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A recent indentification enquiry from a reader has resulted in the discovery of a photograph of considerable signficance to historians of Victorian photography. By Nelson King Cherrill, it is a photograph of Oakford, his Christchurch home, and was purchased on a New Zealand Internet auction site for eight dollars, which is estimated to be approximately one hundredth of its value in an international market.

One of the most respected names in Victorian photography, Cherrill (1845-1916) is first recorded as active in that profession in 1865. Aged 32, with his wife and two children he emigrated to New Zealand in July 1876. An internationally renowned writer and lecturer on photography, Cherrill set about making a local name for himself, becoming a Warden of the pro-cathedral (St Michael and All Angels church), Honorary Secretary of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury and a Christcurch City Councillor from 1879. After five apparently successful years, Cherrill closed his Cashel Street studio and returned to England. It has been suggested that, as a big fish in a very small pond, he lacked professional challenge in an obscure provincial backwater.

Situated upon a sandy hillock on a 20 hectare rural block on the southern side of lower Riccarton Road, Oakford had been built in 1857 by Henry Joseph Hall (1837-1897). Hall appears to have also owned the adjacent block, which now comprises most of the Riccarton shopping precinct, but was originally known as Hall's Township.

Advertised for sale or to let in the Lyttelton Times, as located over Hagley Park, near the Riccarton Railway Crossing, with nine principal rooms, Nelson Cherrill sold Oakford in 1881 for £650 to George Low Beath (1827-1914), a Draper and Outfitter also of Cashel Street.

The last owner of Oakford was John Heaton Rhodes (1888-1960), lawyer, chairman of the Christchurch Press Company Ltd. and a grandson George Rhodes (1816-1864), an early Banks Peninsula farmer.



The much enlarged and somewhat modified Oakford homestead was demolished in 1965 to make way for the development of the Riccarton Village Inn motel in Mandeville Street (which was originally known as Chinamen’s Lane).

Donated to the Riccarton Borough by Jack Rhodes, the Mandeville Reserve on the eastern corner of Riccarton Road and Mandeville Street survives as the last 888 square metres of his 3.2 hectare garden.

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Photo Credits

Top: circa 1880 photograph by Nelson King Cherrill (1845-1916), courtesy of Early Canterbury Photographers.

Bottom: circa 1960, illustration from Riccarton, the founding borough: a short history, by Ian McBride, edited by Malcolm Hopwood, prepared for the Riccarton/Wigram Community Board, Christchurch City Council, 1994.

Christchurch Lyttelton Road Tunnel opened 27 February 1964

With the removal of the Heathcote end of the historic Bridle Path, and the demolition of houses in the vicinity, construction began on New Zealand's longest road tunnel in 1962.


Built at a cost of £3 million by a joint venture consortium of NZ's Fletcher Construction Ltd, and the American Henry J. Kaiser Co., Inc., the 1.9 km tunnel involved the use of 250 kg of explosives to remove 150,000 cubic metres of rock. It was then lined with 1.5 million glazed white tiles.


Opened on the 27th of February 1964 by Brigadier Sir Bernard Fergusson, last British Governor General of New Zealand, the tunnel replaced a tortuous route over Evans Pass on the Port Hills.

Note: the artist's rendition in the 1962 promotional illustration at the top bears little resemblance to what eventuated.

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Special thanks to Anthony of the Early Canterbury Photographers web site for the following items of tunnel ephemera from 1964.




An elevated southerly view of the Heathcote entrance to the tunnel, showing the toll gates and administration building.

Podcast: Tramlines

In a 14 minute talk from Radio Australia's Ockham's Razor series, retired chemist Dr Trevor McAllister looks at the history of the tram, from the first horse-drawn service to the technology that has created the electric trams.

 Download the 6.8 Mb mp3 audio file or read the Transcript.

Image: once again a familiar sight in central Christchurch, is this vintage tram being removed from a New Brighton garden in 1969.

Curator's Choice

Dating from the period between 1969 and 1972 is this dinner service by Crown Lynn Potteries of Auckland.

Represented here by a saucer and a dinner plate is pattern number 452, which was ornamented with a black on white map of Christchurch City. Known as the Down Town series, Crown Lynn also manufactured dinner sets featuring maps of the other principal cities of New Zealand.
An interesting progression of this concept has just come from the Los Angeles design store A+R, who have teamed up with the Japanese artist Nobuhiro Sato to produce trivets and coasters (above) that are individually cast from concrete and feature precise 1/1200 scale maps of Silverlake or Venice; the two homes of A+R in Los Angeles.

A possible emulation opportunity for a local of the arty-crafty persuasion...

Harewood 1964

Borrowed from the R.A.F. for the 1955 film Reach for the Sky, the landmark 1945 Supermarine Spitfire graced the front lawn of the Canterbury Brevet Club building at the northern corner of Memorial Avenue and Russley Road from 1964 until 1984.

The Spitfire was subsequently replaced by a fibreglass replica, moulded from the aeroplane. Completely restored in 1984-85, the aircraft is now displayed at the RNZAF Museum at Wigram.

The replica was given to the people Christchurch when the club shifted from the building to the former Wigram air base's officers' mess in October, 1999.

Halswell: Mount Magdala

An interesting Photographic Essay from the Slack Ninja web site.

An excerpt from the text:

"Mount Magdala was a Catholic institution run by the Good Shepherd Sister’s on the outskirts of Christchurch, near Halswell. It operated from 1888 to 1968, at which time it was taken over by the St John of God Brothers, who ran a boys home. It is interesting to note that both of these groups have paid out compensation to people who claim they were abused while in their care. There is an interesting article about abuse in Magdala institutions www.peterellis.org.nz/church/2003/2003-0503_Press_DirtyLaundry.htm


My dad ran a nearby bakery and would donate each days leftovers to the St John of God boys. Lord knows if the boys ever got the leftovers but at least the dirty old priests didn’t get their hands (or any other parts of their body!) on me! Like many large institutions of the time, Mt Magdala was largely self sufficient, which included running their own farm. There are 5 buildings left, but 4 of them have been given demolition consent. The remaining one, called the granary (a building where grain is stored) is safe for now. It is a long thin building – maybe 6m x 30m..."

Last Photo of the Wahine

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This is quite possibly the last photograph of the inter-island ferry Wahine at Lyttelton on the 9th of April, 1968.

Andrew Clark writes "Taken by my Dad at the ferry terminal while waiting to go to Wellington for their honeymoon. Mum freaked out at the approaching storm clouds and convinced Dad to re-book for the next sailing..."

Photograph by Andrew Clark of Dunedin.

Christchurch Modernist Architecture

Matt Arnold's Website development team at Sons & Co. are the latest occupants of Diederik van Heyningen's 1965 Photographic Studio at 207 Cambridge Terrace (between Colombo and Manchester Streets). Their commercial premises are a classic example of post-war modernist architecture and it therefore comes as no particular surprise to learn that they've published an interesting web site devoted to our domestic architecture of the Modernist period.

The site covers architectural design from the 1940s to the 1980s and includes biographical articles of such renowned local Architects as Paul Pascoe, Peter Beaven, Miles Warren and Maurice Mahoney.

Above is a photograph of the 1961 home of the renowned Christchurch artist W. A. (Bill) Sutton (1917-2000). Yet to be included in the web site's comprehensive listing of outstanding examples of the period, the Sutton house at 20 Templar Street, Richmond could be a worthy addition.

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An RSS feed is also available for site updates.

Comment by Matt.  January 9, 2009.

The building was originally designed for Mannering & Associates by Warren and Mahoney as a purpose-built photographic studio in 1965. Warren and Mahoney celebrated the opening of the Town Hall there in 1972 as the studio looks right across Colombo St. It's not in great condition and the original white has been painted over, but a great building nonetheless and under the threat of development.

Comment by Canterbury Heritage.  January 10, 2009.

By 1951 the 29 year-old photographer Guy Miles Mannering and his partner Keith Donaldson had purchased the Clifford Studios at 115 Cashel Street. Henry Herbert Clifford (1872-1949) had first opened his studio in 1903, but is probably more remembered as being the husband of the notorious "Ma" Clifford, an immensley wealthy racketeer Landlord.

Renamed as the Mannering & Donaldson Studios they specialised in Studio, Commercial, Industrial & Candid photography at the Cashel Street premises, which was situated above the bookshop of Whitcombe and Tombs (now the Whitcoulls Building) until 1965.

Mannering and Associates Ltd had moved from 207 Cambridge Terrace to 14 Stanley Street, Sydenham by 2001. The renowned Guy  Mannering died in 2003 at the age of eighty.

The original Cashel Street premises had also been occupied by the Photographic Engravers T. E. Warren and Company. Accordingly, there may have been a degree of kinship between Guy Miles Mannering and Sir (Frederick) Miles Warren, architect of the Cambridge Terrace Studio.

Harewood 1966

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An aerial view of Christchurch Airport in the year that the overseas terminal was completed to the Left of the adjoining 1960 control tower and terminal.

From a recent series of nostalgic postcards by Terry Moyle and Rosie Louise of Contour Creative Studio at Kaiwaka.

Christchurch Airport Timeline

1935 Christchurch City Council selected the present site at Harewood.
1936 227 hectares of land purchased.
1937 A 915 metre runway and 60 square metre terminal constructed.
1940 Harewood Airport opened for commercial flying.
1940 Airport used by RNZAF as a Training Base until 1945.
1946 Passenger terminal opened in former RNZAF hangar.
1948 An additional 260 hectares of land purchased.
1950 December 16, Harewood Airport becomes New Zealand’s first International Airport - 100 years to the day from the arrival of the first Canterbury Association settlers.
1951 First regular South Island trans-Tasman flights begin from Melbourne to Christchurch.
1953 Christchurch hosted the "Great London to Christchurch Air Race" the first time the route had been traversed in less than 24 hours. The "last great air race" was won by an RAF Canberra bomber.
1955 United States Antarctic Operations begin in Christchurch. December 20 first Antarctic flight by US Navy Operation Deep Freeze.
1957 November 21, four killed in a SAFE Air Bristol freighter crash at Russley golf course.
1959 Burnside Road renamed Memorial Avenue as a memorial to the airmen killed in World War 2.
1960 New 6,000 square metre terminal opened.
1962 The main runway was extended to 2,442 metres providing for commercial jet operations.
1966 An International wing was added to the Domestic Terminal.
1975 Extensions to the Domestic Terminal were completed, extending the total floor space to 16,000 square metres.
1980 New International Arrival Hall completed providing an additional 2,800 square metres of floor space.
1984 Main runway extended by 845 metres to 3,287 metres.
1987 Terminal extended to accommodate Ansett New Zealand and Air New Zealand lounges and domestic air bridges.
1988 Christchurch International Airport Limited was established, as a company owned 75% by the Christchurch City Council and 25% by the New Zealand Government.
1988 International check-in and departure area extended by 2,320 square metres.
1989 International arrival area extended by 1,100 square metres and air bridges and associated facilities of 1,000 square metres added.
1990 International Antarctic Centre opened.
1997 Redevelopment of airport public carpark completed with an additional 340 parking spaces.
1998 New International Terminal Building completed creating an additional 28,000 square metres of new floor space.
2007 5.4 million passengers.
2008 Plans announced for the replacement of the 1960 terminal. With a 45 metre high control tower and a cost of NZ$195 million, the development will be completed in late 2010.

Christchurch Retrospective Photography Competition

TEV Wahine at Lyttelton, 1967

Christchurch City Libraries is running a competition to try and find some key images of Christchurch's heritage of the post-war period with the theme of "Retrospective: Christchurch life, architecture and design 1940s - 1970s."

The Library invites the people of Christchurch to enter a photo competition designed to uncover Christchurch photos of the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s.

The overall winner will receive a digital camera, while the winners of each decade will collect a photography voucher.

Photos can be entered under the following themes:

• Fashion
• Transport
• Buildings and Streets
• Sport and Recreation
• Occupations
• Events
• Everyday Life

The photos will be displayed in the Central Library and on the library website. The winners of each decade and the overall winner will be announced on Tuesday 28 October after Heritage Week has finished, and presented with some great prizes.

All entries will be considered for inclusion in the Christchurch City Libraries online images collection.

Enter at your local library:

Fill in the form to go with your photograph, and hand in at the desk. Photographs will be sent to Central Library for scanning, and returned to your local library for you to collect.

Enter online:

Email library@ccc.govt.nz with your electronic image and attaching the filled in form (word document). Please include 'Heritage Week photograph competition' in the subject line. Submission of an electronic entry form signifies acceptance of the terms and conditions of the competition.

Competition terms and conditions

• Multiple entries are permitted. Each image must be accompanied by a separate entry form.
• Photos will be transferred to the Christchurch City Libraries Flickr Pages for display. Entering the competition gives permission for photos to be added to the flickr service under the licence Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 New Zealand.
• Copies of the photograph entries may be displayed in the library and on the Christchurch City Libraries website.
• Entries that do not have full contact details in entry forms will not be considered.
• All winners will be notified by telephone and/or email.
• By entering all winners consent to their names and images being used for reasonable publicity purposes by Christchurch City Libraries.
• The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
• Christchurch City Libraries will not be responsible for any breaches of copyright or privacy that may occur.
• Christchurch City Libraries’ reserve the right not to display all entries.
  

Christchurch 1961 Panorama

Since early August, 2008 the Christchurch City Libraries has been posting historic images on flickr.com. Among the most recent posts has been a sequence of undated photographs taken from the roof of the 1930, seven storey, St Elmo Courts, Art Deco apartment building in Hereford Street at the Montreal Street corner.

Above is an east-west partial panorama constructed from some of the Libraries' photographs.

To the extreme Left is the corner of Cambridge Terrace and Hereford Street, with the 1908 YMCA building on the site. Next to it (along Cambridge Terrace) can be seen the rear of the YMCA's Gordon Hall of 1885. To the Right of the Gordon Hall is a pale green two storey wooden building. Demolished in 1998, this was the 1940 headquarters of the NZ Army's Southern Military District. Clearly visible is the fire damaged roof of this building, which burnt in February, 1961.

Demolished in 1968, the 1908 YMCA building was replaced by the current Police Station in 1973. Along the range from Cambridge Terrace to Montreal Streets are the buildings of the 1863 Police Barracks and the 1873 & 1906 Police Stations. These were progressively demolished between 1973 and 1984 for a car park. At the corner of Montreal Street is the 1909 residence of the Chief Inspector of Police.

Between Montreal Street and Rolleston Avenue is a range of houses dating from circa 1880-1900. The most conspicuous of these is the vastly expanded Hereford Private Hotel ($10 a night and $1.50 for breakfast in 1984).

To the Right are the buildings of Canterbury University (now the Arts Centre). In the foreground can be seen the former 1883 Llanmaes House, subsequently the Student Union building from 1929, it is now the Dux de Lux Restaurant & Bar.

Podcast: Joyce Grenfell

Sir Bernard Fergusson (1911-1980), Baron Ballantrae of the Bay of Islands, was Governor-General from 1962 to 1967. His father, Sir Charles Fergusson, was Governor-General from 1924 to 1930, his father-in-law, the Earl of Glasgow, was governor from 1892 to 1896, and his grandfather, Sir James Fergusson, was governor from 1873 to 1874.

The New Zealand link continues with Bernard's son Geordie, British High Commissioner since 2006.

Sir Bernard's sister-in-law was the renowned actress and comedienne Joyce Grenfell (1910-1979). Joyce and Reggie Grenfell were a regular guests at Wellington's Government House and are fondly remembered by a generation of dinner guests, in an era before the decline into political patronage changed the Vice-regal milieu forever.


From the BBC's Great Lives series, comic performer Arabella Weir nominates Joyce Grenfell, whose comic monologues were a huge influence on her, growing up. Joyce's family friend and biographer Janie Hampton supplies the inside information in this 28 minute program.

Download original audio source

Christchurch 1971

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Moorhouse Avenue, North side between Manchester and Madras Streets, 2nd of December, 1971.

A group of 1870-80s buildings, from Left at the corner of Manchester Street is the Inter-island Hotel (formerly the Terminus Hotel).

Next is the premises of Colonial Distributors Ltd, with the Bond Street Bag Company on the ground floor.

To the Right and below is a yet to be identified building in the process of demolition.

The site of these three buildings is now occupied by Cockram Motors, the Nissan dealership.


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Lyttelton Tunnel 1962-2008

The Heathcote, Christchurch entrance of the Lyttelton Tunnel in July, 1962 and January, 2008.

Opened in 1964, the tunnel slopes gently towards Lyttelton. Accordingly a vehicle allowed to coast the 1.9 kilometre length will arrive at the exit at the same speed at which it entered the tunnel.

Friendship House goes East

Now remembered only by Christwegian grandparents was the Sunday night Teenage Coffee Club in the Methodist Central Mission's Friendship House on Cambridge Terrace between Colombo and Manchester Streets.

The adjacent Church bought the late 1880s house in 1961 and opened the club the following year. By the late 1980s it had become the Cleopatra's on Avon restaurant. Now sporting a most exotic interior the old building is partially obscured by the facade of the Indochine restaurant, as it is now known.

To the Right in the earlier photo is the 1873 Primitive Methodist Church, destroyed by arson in 1981.

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The house to the Left at 207 Cambridge Terrace was probably built about 1873 on to the front of an earlier two-roomed cottage. It first enters the photographic record in 1878 and the porch was a later addition.

Demolished in 1965 it was replaced by the commercial photographic studios of Mannering and Associates Ltd. Subsequently the premises of Diederik van Heyningen's Lightworkx Photography, in 2008 it's the design studio of Sons & co.