Chancery Lane 1862

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This is an extensive reconstruction of a circa 1862 pencil sketch of three buildings on the southern side of Gloucester Street West at the location where Chancery Lane has been situated since 1882. The depiction of the side wall of the building to the Left remains in its original state to indicate the condition of the poorly conserved original. Below is the same location, opposite the Christchurch Central Library, as it appears in 2009.


Situated on Town Sections leased from the Revered James Wilson (1831-1886), Archdeacon of Akaroa, are the homes and business premises of three families, whose fathers would rise to prominence in the city and sire 25 children between them. Statistical extrapolation would suggest that by 2009 they would have about 18,000 living descendants.


It's possible to date the drawing to between 1861 and 1863 consequential to the two photographs above. The earlier image indicates that the buildings at each side of the drawing were still single-storey structures and that the central building was yet to be fitted with its glazed veranda.

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At the Left of the partially completed drawing, which is annotated with "extend on both sides," is the two-storey premises of the painter, paperhanger and glazier William Epthorp Samuels (1833-1917). His wife Eliza would bear a son and ten daughters.

Arriving from Sydney in 1859, Bill Samuels would be one of the founders of the Christchurch Fire Brigade in the following year. By 1864 he is recorded as the Publican of the White Swan Hotel on the southwest corner of Tuam and Montreal Streets. By the late 1860s the Samuels had moved to Thames, where Bill is recorded as a bankrupt hotel keeper in 1870.

The family returned to Christchurch after six years in the Goldfields district and by the 1880s Samuels is recorded as having achieved some prominence in the United Ancient Order of Druids. In 1891 his occupation was stated as Artist. A Justice of the Peace and Christchurch City Councillor from 1894 to 1905, Samuels lived to the age of 84 and is buried in the Barbadoes Street Cemetery

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Elizabeth and John Coe (1832-1893) had established themselves at Lyttelton by 1855. John operated a liverly stables next door to the Mitre Hotel in Canterbury Street and, adjacent to the stables, Elizabeth opened a Millinery shop, with their accommodation above. Also a provincial government contractor, John established the first coach service from Christchurch to Lyttelton. By 1857 Christchurch had begun to rival its Port in size, the writing was on the wall as far as commercial development was concerned, and in 1859 the Coes moved to the new city.


With the architect Isaac Luck (1817-1881) favouring the the Tudoresque style of architecture and his partner Benjamin Mountfort (1825-1898) tending to the Gothic alternative, Elizabeth Coe's 1859 Millinery Establishment (above) at the centre of the drawing is probably to the design of the latter. The subject matter, artistic style, architectural accuracy of the buildings and the hand written annotations on the drawing would tend to support an hypothesis that it could be an unattributed sketch by Mountfort.

The Coes prospered to the extent that in 1866 John was able to purchase 1,640 acres at Irwell in the Ellesmere district to the near south of Christchurch. Here they built Bruscoe Lodge, a two-storey home with sixteen rooms. One of their many grandaughters married the renowned artist Sydney Lough Thompson (1877-1973), and a direct descendant is Mayor of the Selwyn district in 2009. Probably familiar to most Canterbrians is Coes Ford, a popular recreational reserve near Irwell that takes its name from these early settlers in the district.

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To the Right of the drawing is the 1858 home of Sarah Elizabeth and Joseph William Papprill (1801-1880), who had come to Christchurch in 1856. By 1864 the building had acquired a second storey to accomodate the first seven of their eventual nine children. A Tailor and Habit maker by trade, Papprill sold the Gloucester Street business in 1873 to an employee and was describing himself as a Gentleman by the following year.

Joseph lived to the age of 79 and is buried in the Barbadoes Street Cemetery. His eldest son entered the legal profession and a grandson succeeded to the Practice, which continues to prosper in 2009 as Papprill Hadfield & Aldous.

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The renowned doctor and pioneer photographer Alfred Charles Barker (1819-1873) reminisced that the alley way between Elizabeth Coe's Millinery and Joseph Papprill's Tailor's shop had been a popular short cut for revellers in the 1860s, who disturbed his evening tranquility.


By 1881 the last of the Venerable Archdeacon's 21 year leases expired and the structures depicted in the drawing were demolished to make way for a matching pair of buildings on either side of the Alley (above). which became officially known as Chancery Lane. The last surving remnant of these is the eastern third of the building to the Right of the Lane (below).



Addendum

Chancery Lane 1960

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The Alexander Turnbull Library reference:

Artist unknown :[Three shops in Gloucester Street, Christchurch. 1870s]
Reference number: C-081-004-2
1 drawing(s). Pencil drawing on sheet, 240 x 535 mm.. Horizontal image.
Part of Artist unknown :[Eight pencil sketches of Christchurch buildings and the Avon River. 1870-1875?] (C-081-003/009)
Part of Artist unknown :[Two Christchurch sketches; Slate roofed stone house; and, Three shops in Gloucester Street. 1860-1870s] (C-081-004)
Drawings and Prints Collection, :
Scope and contents

Notes

Shows three businesses, probably in Gloucester Street, Christchurch: a painter's and glazier's business; Albion House Millinery; and [T] Papp[rill tailors].

Location Gloucester Street assumed from the fact that T Papprill, tailor is listed as being in Gloucester Street in Wises Directory for 1872.

2009 Heritage Grants Illustrated

On Friday, the 5th of June the Christchurch City Council issued a press release announcing the Heritage Grants and Covenants Committee's grants for 2009. We illustrate and quote from that media statement. Our editorial comments are in blue.


Just over $27,000 has been granted for conservation work on Acland House. The house was built around 1893 and was named after the Chairman of the school board when the hostel was established in 1921. The building is a group three listed building in the City Plan.

Situated at 85 Papanui Road, Merivale, and renamed to commemorate Sir Hugh Thomas Dyke Acland (1874-1956), the house is a residential facility for approximately 90 Christchurch Girls' High School pupils.

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The committee has granted $3,500 to install protective glass in a cell at Addington Prison to cover sketches done by inmates. Addington Prison was built to relieve congestion at the Lyttelton Gaol, the City’s first and only penal institution at the time. It is a good example of a Victorian jail and was constructed in 1872. The jail is also of significance for its connection to Edward Seager, who was Canterbury’s first police sergeant, Addington Gaol’s first gaoler, and Sunnyside Hospital’s first warden. The grant follows an earlier one, made in June last year, of $50,000 for internal and external maintenance and restoration work.

Built to the neo-Gothic design of the Architect Benjamin Mountfort in 1874, the building replaced an earlier prison in Armagh Street. Closed in 1999, the original cell block has been a Backpacker's Hostel since 2006.

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A grant of nearly $8,000 will be used towards repainting the exterior of the Highpara Apartment building in High Street. The three storey building is one of a number of listed premises on High Street that contribute significantly to the streetscape of this inner city precinct. In the 1980s the first and second floors of the building were converted to residential use, providing 27 warehouse-style apartments.

Built in 1884 as a block of retail premises, the current name derives from the Para Rubber Company having been a long term tenant of the corner shop.

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BEFORE

AFTER

A commercial building at 68 Manchester has attracted a grant of just over $8,000. The two storey, group-three-listed building was designed by Samuel Farr in 1877 and is one of a number of listed buildings on Manchester Street that contribute to the low-rise classical streetscape of the area.

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A grant of $26,000 has been allocated to work on a Cunningham Terrace, Lyttelton, house. The house is an early colonial dwelling built in 1874 for Peter Cunningham, a landowner and grain exporter who was a founder member of the Lyttelton Harbour Board and an original shareholder in the Canterbury Club. The house is an elegant two storey triple gabled timber dwelling with decorative finials and bargeboards. The grant will be used for replacing the roof, exterior painting, and replacing rotted timber.

Purchased from the Honourable John Thomas Peacock, Peter Cunningham was the owner of Peacock's Wharf, over which his house enjoyed a commanding view. Now much enlarged, and the dock for the inter-island RoRo cargo ferries, the port's second jetty is more prosaically renamed as No 7 Wharf.

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The Piko Wholefoods building at 229 Kilmore Street is a two storey brick building built in 1905. A grant of $10,000 will be used for maintenance on the brick, stone and timber work.

Originally the retail premises of a Painter and Paperhanger, the upper floor was first occupied by James Wyn Irwin, promoter of the Shorthand dictation method and Australasian representative of The Gregg Correspondence School. The building has been occupied by the Piko Wholefoods Coöperative since 1981.

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A grant of nearly $6,000 has been approved for work on the Cashmere Hills Presbyterian Church at 2 Macmillan Avenue. The church was designed by Cecil Wood in 1926 and built in 1929 of Port Hills basalt with a slate roof. A substantial amount of the grant will be used towards restoration of five stained glass windows and installation of protective glass shields to the north and east facing windows.

History Happened Here

No other New Zealand city can claim to have surviving buildings within the central business district from the first decade of settlement, but then neither does Christchurch, which appears to have ignored this unique distinction.

From its beginnings in 1851, that section of Cashel Street, which now lies within the City Mall, was the nascent town's first commercial precinct and the first block to be fully occupied by buildings. Remarkably, two of these early structures, although both altered beyond recognition, survive into the twenty-first century. Facing each other across the mall are the 1856 Union Bank and an original cottage of what is probably an even earlier vintage (below).


The earliest history of 87 Cashel Street West is still shrouded in mystery, but it's probable that by 1858 it was leased by the Draper Louis Nathan, Canterbury's first Jewish settler. Subsequently the premises of a Saddler, by 1875 the Cashel Street building had become adjoined on both sides by substantial second generation brick buildings, both of which survive behind modernised facades.


In 1876 the building was purchased by Nelson King Cherrill, who substantially renovated the premises, creating an ornamental arched shop facade. At this time the roof line was altered to a Mansard design, with an extant large window from the upper floor level through to the roof line, thus providing an ideal photographic studio to a popular London design, with which Cherrill would have been familiar (below). One of the most respected names in Victorian photography, Cherrill (1845-1916) closed his studio and returned to England in 1881.

In February 1884 the building became the photographic studio of Theophilus Easter (1832-1913), formery of Easter & Wallis of Colombo Street, but his soujourn was not long, as from 1887 to 1891, Thomas Reginald Attwood (c1865-1926) is recorded as being a photographer at the address. By 1908 the building had been subdivided into two street level shops, with the premises of a Signwriter occupying the first floor studio.

Now with a couple of fashionable frock shops on the ground floor, the upper level is currently an apartment (below).

Footnote

The renowned collector of early New Zealand photographs Anthony Rackstraw writes;

"It's probably only a minor observation, but for me its interesting to note that all the Cherrill portrait photographs I have would indicate from the shadow on the subject's face that they all sat in front of the studio window against the east wall (closest to Colombo Street), in the area that has now been subdivided off to form the kitchen. The eleven Cherrill photographs in the Alexander Turnbull Library collection also indicate this; the shadow is always in the same side of the face, except one which strangely is the other way around."

Anthony's observations would tie in with the stairway being at the Oxford Terrace (western) end of the studio, with the small window lighting the stairwell.

Addendum

Canterbury Photography said...

The tea and coffee importing business of Browne and Heaton can be seen in one of these photographs. The following is from an article that appeared in The Press of 25 November 1995:

"Browne and Heaton, tea and coffee specialists formerly of Cashel Street, have become a Christchurch institution - a name synonymous with good taste, but oddly enough there never was a Mr Browne or a Mr Heaton. The business was started in 1908 by Mr Billingham, who had worked for a well-known Birmingham tea and coffee importers by the name Browne and Heaton. Believing the name of a respected English firm would help him establish a business in Christchurch, he took the name of his former employers.

Sadly, Mr Billingham died soon after Browne and Heaton's opened in Cashel Street but the business continued under his assistant, Mr Smith, and has now been in the Smith family for three generations. Trevor Smith has worked at Browne and Heaton's for 54 years - starting work for his father after college in 1945. Ironically, when Trevor travelled to Britain five years ago, he found that the original Browne and Heaton (Birmingham) had long ceased to exist - bombed out in the early years of World War 2.

A wide selection of society shopped at Browne and Heaton: housewives, doctors, lawyers, immigrant ... and once a week Lady Wigram's chauffeur would call to pick up a standing order for freshly ground coffee. Now wholesalers in Tuam Street, Browne and Heaton still serve regular customers of many years."

Further reading

An illustrated biography of Nelson Cherrill on the Early Canterbury Photographers web site.

An appraisal of Nelson Cherrill's career by Bill Jay, first Director of Photography at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts


Photo credits

Engraving of the interior of a Victorian photographic studio: photoLondon

Detail from an 1878 photograph; collection of the Christchurch Photographic Society, detail from a 1946 photograph; collection of the Canterbury Museum, circa 1860 and 2009 photographs; Canterbury Heritage Archive.

The Way We Were

Christchurch's The Star newspaper publishes the regular The Way We Were series of illustrated articles. This week's wee gem is a photograph of a pair of shops in Victoria Square.

The caption includes the following information "... probably around the turn of the 19th century, shows Paddy's Market, a well patronised group of stores and stalls which sold fruit, vegetables and many other bits and pieces."

However, in the intrests of historical accuracy we tender the following:

In what was known as the market place until 1901, the former Immigration Barracks (subsequently the second Fire Station), Police Station and assorted City Council sheds were demolished in 1878. A group of thirteen wooden shops was subsequently erected on the western side of lower Victoria Street, between Armagh Street and the bridge to Papanui. These shops sold only fresh produce, which also included meat and fish. The development was a fairly short lived affair and the photographic record indicates that all of the shops had been removed by 1885. There would appear to be no evidence in the historic record to indicate that any part of Market Place was ever known as "Paddy's Market."

The photograph published in The Star shows the second and third shops at the Armagh Street end of the block. The image comes from a panoramic sequence of five heavily retouched photographs, showing all of the shops in about 1880.

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Christchurch 1872-2009

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A pair of southerly views of Manchester Street from the intersection with High and Lichfield Streets.

The site of this intersection had been a low lying swamp when construction of the Sumner Road commenced in 1849. This factor, along with the original proposal to build the Christchurch prison in the vicinity, ensured that development in the area did not flourish until the mid 1860s, when Manchester Street south became the principal thouroughfare between the central business district and the railway station.

To the Left in the earlier photograph, at the north-east corner of Manchester and Lichfield Streets, is the recently constructed premises of the grocers Hubbard, Hall & Company, with the offices of the Commercial Union Assurance Company above. The building was demolished in 1929 to make way for the extant Majestic Theatre.

At the south-east corner of Manchester and High Streets (centre Left) is John Barrett's Borough Hotel. Built by George Mouritz in 1865, it replaced Mrs O'Hara's single storey Harp of Erin Tavern. On Boxing Day in 1879 the intersection was the scene of a sectarian riot when parading Orangemen and Irish Catholics (who frequented the Borough Hotel) fought in the streets. The old hotel was demolished in 1881 to be replaced by the renamed Barrett's Hotel. Currently a Backpackers' hostel, the name was changed to the Excelsior Hotel at sometime between 1889 and 1892.

At the south-west corner of Manchester and Lichfield Streets is the Riccarton Mills store, premises of the Scottish Corn merchant Peter Cunningham (1839-1915). This building was demolished in 1904 in favour of the extant first stage of the Ridley's building, now occupied by the Ruben Blades Hairdressing Academy.

At the north-west corner of High and Lichfield Streets (Right) is the first chemist shop of George Hartley Bonnington (1836-1901). A partial reconstruction of this shop can be seen in the Canterbury Museum. Bonnington's pharmacy had originally been the premise of the Draper William Strange (1834-1914), who had subsequently moved to the adjacent shop (at the extreme Right) in 1863. The row of shops was demolished in 1899 to be replaced by a four storey extension to what became the vast department store of Strange & Company. What had become Australasia's largest department store went into liquidation in 1929, and shorn of its cornice and pediment, the dilapated building barely survives into its second century.

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COMMENTS

kuaka said...

Very nice past & present item, as usual. Might one add that the Jubilee clock tower stood at the NW corner of High and Manchester Street circa 1897 to sometime in 1930s? It was just behind where the flower beds are in the present day pic. I'll refrain from commenting on the "kinetic" sculpture on the spot today (the red poppy looking object behind the trees).... The clock tower is now at the Victoria & Montreal streets corner.

Canterbury Heritage said...

At a cost of one thousand pounds, the clock in the tower was made to order in England in 1862 from a design prepared by the Provincial Architects Benjamin Mountfort and Isaac Luck. Deemed unsuitable for erection on the stone tower of the Provincial Buildings on the Armagh Street frontage, it lay among the rubbish in the old council yard on Oxford Terrace, where Captain Scott's statue now is. It was eventually erected by means of public subscription in 1897 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Jubilee. The intersection became familiarly known as "Clocktower," until the structure was removed in 1930.

The tradition of naming major city junctions has now been lost, but the intersection at Cashel and High Streets was known as "The Triangle" and the intersection of High, Hereford and Colombo Streets was commonly known as "The Bottleneck."

History is not a tale of progress, but a succession of cycles in which civilisation alternates with barbarism. In the case of Christchurch the most significant cultural apogee appears to have been achieved in the 1930s and 1940s. Thus the recently erected and naïvely abstract Poppy mobile on the corner might require a charitable sentiment, with the consolation of knowing that its gimcrackery will date soon enough.

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Sarndra said...

Good grief that poppy is just gross....I haven't seen it before. Chch has changed so much even in the 18 months since I left.

Melbourne House

Behind the modernised facade of the building occupied in 2008 by Hunters and Collectors on the western side of High Street between Cashel and Lichfield Streets is the 1875 Melbourne House.

Built by the Polish Ironmongers Solomon and Hiram Nashelski to replace their single storey hardware shop of 1864, they shared the ground floor with Hermann Isaac, a watchmaker and Solomon Nashelski's son-in-law (Isaac would later become a local name to be reckoned with).

Christchurch was something of a Wild West frontier town in the late nineteenth century (some might consider that it still is); revolvers could purchased over the Nashelski's counter in the late 1880s and business was good - they had added a fourth storey before 1900. 68 year-old Solomon Nashelski of Armagh Street died on the 5th of May, 1890 and his hardware shop became Ashby, Bergh and Company.

Edward E Ashby and the Norwegian Ludwig Bergh (1848-1895) had both begun work at the original Ironmongery in 1864, and although their names remain incised into the Limestone facade, the 145 year old ghost of the Nashelki brother's humble enterprise lingers on in the twenty-first century as the automotive parts retailer Repco.

One of the sixteen major buildings gutted in the Great Fire of 1908 (centre) Melbourne House was refurbished to its current appearance in the following year.

Christchurch 1872 & 2008

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A panoramic view of Colombo Street North from the Gloucester Street intersection, towards Victoria Square.

With one exception all of the buildings in this photograph have been replaced twice. The lone survivor is the two storey building, with the two large chimneys, on the Right hand side of the street.

The same view in 2008

See where these photographs were taken.

New Zealand's Oldest Shop?

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Long forgotten as such, this brick building survives as the city's second oldest commercial premises on the Eastern side of Colombo Street in the block between Gloucester and Armagh Streets.

Built in 1857, it was acquired by pioneer merchant George Gould two years later. Gould was the local agent for Burrow's Boot & Shoe factory of Cookham, the English hobnail boot manufacturer, and named his new premises Cookham House. His family lived above the shop from where they enjoyed an unobstructed Southerly view to Cathedral Square, which at that time was being levelled.

Gould prospered and moved on, the building became the expanded premises of the neighbouring Grocer Frank A. Cook. Later it would become a cafe and is now occupied by a Chemist on the ground floor, with Sergeant Pepper's Steakhouse above.

See where this picture was taken

The Queen's Theatre

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Opened on the 31st of October 1912 by the Mayor of Christchurch, the city's first purpose built cinema occupies the Hereford Street site of the 1853 home of William Sefton Moorhouse.

Owned by the Melburnian theatrical impresario James F MacMahon, a competition to a name the cinema was held by The Press newspaper, with a first prize of five Guineas. Seating 934 patrons, films were shown continuously from 11 am to 11 pm.

McMahon had exhibited the first projected motion picture shown to a paying Christchurch audience in November 1896. His Salon Cinématographe in High Street near the Cashel Street intersection almost certainly screened the 1896 Melbourne Cup race on that occasion.

In 1929 the twenty-five year-old Royal Exchange building in Cathedral Square was refurbished as the Regent Theatre, thereby obliging McKenzie & Willis Ltd to find new premises. The furniture retailers acquired the Queen's Theatre, which closed on the 5th of January 1929.

In 1935 the former cinema underwent significant redevelopment. Although the original ceiling and the stairway to the Dress Circle were left intact, a fourth floor was added and the Neo-classic Hereford Street frontage (to the Right in the top Left image) was replaced with the surviving Art Deco facade.

The long, narrow building was subsequently refurbished and linked to the Colombo Street Kincaid building in the 1950s as the McKenzie & Willis Arcade. More recently acquired by the Auckland Savings Bank, the ground floor is partially occupied by a 24/7 convenience store.

In 2003 the Theatre and Film Department of the University of Canterbury took the vacant upper floors as teaching, rehearsal and performance space. Residential facilities for post-graduate students are also provided.


See the Queen's Theatre location

Christchurch 1947

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The South-west corner of Colombo at Cashel Street, February 1947. Ballantyne's department store just before the disastrous fire and the gutted shell being demolished.

Recent additions to the photographic archive

Historic Christchurch Building Demolition?

27 February 2008 - A much photographed shop at the corner of Barbadoes and Armagh Streets is currently being offered for sale as a potential redevelopment site.

Although somewhat dilapidated and sporting later windows to the upper floor accommodation area, this circa 1875 building, last sold for $200 in 1945, is widely considered worthy of restoration.

UPDATE

4 April 2008 - Christchurch newspaper The Star reports that Barry King (82), who operated the city's oldest bicycle shop from the premises for 63 years has sold to new owners who will renovate the building for commercial use.

Hay’s - a Christchurch Icon

Jim Hay (1888-1971) opened his Gloucester Street department store on Friday the 13th of December, 1929. In 1938 the shop expanded on to Colombo Street and four years later, with the purchase of the 1910 Hayward building, Hay acquired an Armagh Street frontage. His upper floor office in the top (1957) image overlooked Victoria Square.

Hay's subsequently became Haywrights in 1968 and then Farmers in 1987. The old building was demolished in 1997, but the new Farmers department store is but a fraction of the size of its famous predecessor. More on the Christchurch Libraries' Heritage web site.

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Minson's of Christchurch

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A nondescript facade on the East side of Colombo Street between Gloucester and Armagh Streets belies the story of what was once a fondly remembered Christchurch institution.

In 1892 forty-eight year-old William Minson arrived in the city with a young family. Settling at the "The Hollies," on the banks of the Heathcote river in Opawa, he purchased a hardware shop originally established in 1857 by William Neeve. As Minson & Company he turned the business into a replica of the old family crockery and glassware emporium at St Ives in Cornwall.

With what was probably the best range and quality in the city, Minson flourished to the extent that he moved the shop further up Colombo Street into the 1882 three-storied Compton House. In 1912 he extended the premises through to Gloucester Street. Succeeded by Arthur William, the oldest of his three sons, Minson died in 1925 aged 81 and now lies in Linwood Cemetery.

Carville Stewart recalled Minsons in the late 1920s: '... a long narrow shop on Colombo Street, north of Cathedral Square, that sold good quality china, cutlery and glassware - they kept a great deal of their stock on island displays alongside a central aisle that ran down the length of the store. The floor was wooden and when you walked down that very long aisle, every piece of china, on every one of those island displays, rattled alarmingly. It sounded as if every piece of expensive china was going to fall off and break into a thousand pieces - quite terrifying for a shy little boy who just wanted to see the Micro Models at the back of the store."

Alas commercial acumen is not an inheritable trait and its fourteenth decade the venerable store declined into extinction, but shorn of its elaborate facade in the 1940s the old premises survives as a dilapidated ghost of its former glory.

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