The Adelaide designed $110 million airport terminal begins to take shape at Harewood. The island's largest construction project is scheduled for completion in late 2010.
Photo credits: top; Rodd Taylor, bottom; dexigner.com
Apr 24, 2009
Apr 23, 2009
Curator's Choice
This is an humourous Christchurch postcard dating from circa 1937, an era when the city was still in the waning clutches of the Prohibitionists and the Social Purity League. The wowsers were increasingly becoming the butt of humour from the more liberaly minded locals, as the quaintly class-conscious subject indicates.
The lower part of the image is a flap, behind which is a folding sequence of twelve Christchurch streetscapes by Arthur Bendigo Hurst (1880-1964), which can be dated to the early Spring of 1936.
From his Broma Studio at Napier, the former Nelson photographer and founding President of the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography, regularly undertook commissions for the Tanner Brothers of Wellington, publisher's of the postcard. But Hurst is probably best remembered for his images of the 1931 Napier earthquake devastation.
The lower part of the image is a flap, behind which is a folding sequence of twelve Christchurch streetscapes by Arthur Bendigo Hurst (1880-1964), which can be dated to the early Spring of 1936.
From his Broma Studio at Napier, the former Nelson photographer and founding President of the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography, regularly undertook commissions for the Tanner Brothers of Wellington, publisher's of the postcard. But Hurst is probably best remembered for his images of the 1931 Napier earthquake devastation.
Apr 22, 2009
1887 Bicycle Race
As the restoration and geo-tagging of the ten thousandth vintage streetscape looms, the four dimensional model of Christchurch is acquiring a degree of accuracy, which now allows for the positive identification of virtually all historic images of the city.
The above photograph was taken just before seven o'clock on the morning of Monday, the 26th of September 1887 by Alfred Ernest Preece (1863-1946), who lived close to the lower Riccarton Road location. It comes from the collection of the Canterbury Museum (ref 10959).
The above photograph was taken just before seven o'clock on the morning of Monday, the 26th of September 1887 by Alfred Ernest Preece (1863-1946), who lived close to the lower Riccarton Road location. It comes from the collection of the Canterbury Museum (ref 10959).
The extant Standish and Preece photographic studio was situated at 218 High Street in that era. A regular photographer of cycling events, Preece was probably also the proprietor of the A. E. Preece Cyclists' Exchange in the second A1 Hotel building on the corner of Cashel and Colombo Streets.
The photograph shows the nine contestants at the start of the Pioneer Bicycle Club's fifty mile (80 Km) bicycle race from Christchurch to Leeston and back. The race was won by Richard Bargrove of Waverley Street, New Brighton, who started from scratch and completed the race in 3 hours and 35 minutes. Beating the record by 8 minutes, Bargrove finished 20 minutes before the field.
Seen to the Right at the beginning of Riccarton Road in this easterly view is the Riccarton Hotel. The once famed hostelry stood on the southern corner of Riccarton Road and Deans Avenue at the Riccarton roundabout until 2006.
Dating from 1851, when it was known as The Traveller's Rest, subsequently as the Plough Inn when reconstructed in 1865 and then as the Riccarton Hotel, followed by Nancy’s Hotel until its last ignominous incarnation as the Fat Lady's Arms.
An early favourite with the horse racing fraternity, the hotel's eastern facade (below) faced Hagley Park opposite the finish line of the Canterbury Jockey Club's original racecourse.
The photograph shows the nine contestants at the start of the Pioneer Bicycle Club's fifty mile (80 Km) bicycle race from Christchurch to Leeston and back. The race was won by Richard Bargrove of Waverley Street, New Brighton, who started from scratch and completed the race in 3 hours and 35 minutes. Beating the record by 8 minutes, Bargrove finished 20 minutes before the field.
Seen to the Right at the beginning of Riccarton Road in this easterly view is the Riccarton Hotel. The once famed hostelry stood on the southern corner of Riccarton Road and Deans Avenue at the Riccarton roundabout until 2006.
Dating from 1851, when it was known as The Traveller's Rest, subsequently as the Plough Inn when reconstructed in 1865 and then as the Riccarton Hotel, followed by Nancy’s Hotel until its last ignominous incarnation as the Fat Lady's Arms.
An early favourite with the horse racing fraternity, the hotel's eastern facade (below) faced Hagley Park opposite the finish line of the Canterbury Jockey Club's original racecourse.
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Restored detail from the National Museum of New Zealand's circa 1905 photograph
Apr 21, 2009
George Lyttelton 1817-1876
On this day, the 21st of April in 1876, George William Lyttelton committed suicide by throwing himself over the first floor balustrade of his house at 18 Park Crescent, overlooking London's Regents Park.
Subsequently sharing collateral descent with Diana, Princess of Wales and the Jazz musician Humphrey Lyttelton, the 4th Baron Lyttelton was not the first of his kin to be described as suffering from gloomy delusions and unsatisfying wild, pompous fancies.
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, founding chairman of the short lived Canterbury Association (1848-1852), brother-in-law of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone and property speculator, George Lyttelton purchased 2,400 acres of land at Lyttelton, Christchurch, Geraldine and in the Selwyn county, which by 1882 was worth $9.427 million to his heir in today's money (his uncle, the 4th Earl Spencer, also bought 700 acres of land in the Christchurch district).
Subsequently sharing collateral descent with Diana, Princess of Wales and the Jazz musician Humphrey Lyttelton, the 4th Baron Lyttelton was not the first of his kin to be described as suffering from gloomy delusions and unsatisfying wild, pompous fancies.
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, founding chairman of the short lived Canterbury Association (1848-1852), brother-in-law of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone and property speculator, George Lyttelton purchased 2,400 acres of land at Lyttelton, Christchurch, Geraldine and in the Selwyn county, which by 1882 was worth $9.427 million to his heir in today's money (his uncle, the 4th Earl Spencer, also bought 700 acres of land in the Christchurch district).
Apr 18, 2009
Maurice Conly, Artist
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At the end of a 3,488 kilometre flight from Christchurch, NZ7005, a 1969 Lockheed C-130H Hercules aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Air Force's No.40 Squadron unloads passengers and supplies at the Williams Field on the Ross Ice Shelf in McMurdo Sound in early 1974.
Seen above in original livery, but subsequently painted out in shades of camouflauge green and now in a monochrome gun-metal grey, the 40 year old aircraft is still in service with the RNZAF.
No work of a local artist would be more familiar to New Zealanders than that of the relatively unknown Maurice Conly.
For 54 years Wing Commander Robert Maurice Conly (1920-1995) was the last Royal New Zealand Air Force Official Artist. But beyond his stamp designs for New Zealand, Tokelau, the Ross Dependency, Niue and the Cook Islands, Conly's New Zealand twenty cent and one dollar coin designs are familiar to all Kiwis.
Dunedin born and trained, Conly was based at Christchurch when he returned to Antarctica in 1974 as an Antarctic Arts Fellow under the Artists to Antarctica Programme.
Commissioned to paint three large dioramas of wildlife studies for the Antarctic wing of the Canterbury Museum in 1977, he published Ice on my Palette in the same year. The coffee table sized book includes 27 sketches and 26 colour plates, with text by the Dunedin author Neville Peat, then an information officer with the Antarctic Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.
One of the joys of the last town before Antarctica is the weekend Flea markets, not the trendy version on the city's outskirt at Riccarton, but the smaller, lesser known markets dotted around the inner suburbs. Signed by the authors, a copy of Ice on my Palette (from which the top illustration comes) was recently found in the Linwood Market at approximately a fifty-sixth of its international market value.
Seen above in original livery, but subsequently painted out in shades of camouflauge green and now in a monochrome gun-metal grey, the 40 year old aircraft is still in service with the RNZAF.
No work of a local artist would be more familiar to New Zealanders than that of the relatively unknown Maurice Conly.
For 54 years Wing Commander Robert Maurice Conly (1920-1995) was the last Royal New Zealand Air Force Official Artist. But beyond his stamp designs for New Zealand, Tokelau, the Ross Dependency, Niue and the Cook Islands, Conly's New Zealand twenty cent and one dollar coin designs are familiar to all Kiwis.
Dunedin born and trained, Conly was based at Christchurch when he returned to Antarctica in 1974 as an Antarctic Arts Fellow under the Artists to Antarctica Programme.
Commissioned to paint three large dioramas of wildlife studies for the Antarctic wing of the Canterbury Museum in 1977, he published Ice on my Palette in the same year. The coffee table sized book includes 27 sketches and 26 colour plates, with text by the Dunedin author Neville Peat, then an information officer with the Antarctic Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.
One of the joys of the last town before Antarctica is the weekend Flea markets, not the trendy version on the city's outskirt at Riccarton, but the smaller, lesser known markets dotted around the inner suburbs. Signed by the authors, a copy of Ice on my Palette (from which the top illustration comes) was recently found in the Linwood Market at approximately a fifty-sixth of its international market value.
Apr 17, 2009
Early Christchurch Electric Vehicles
The diasporical and widely appreciated The New Zealand Journal has recently featured a short post entitled Christchurch City Council Belt-Tightening?, in which it's wondered if there might be any advantage to the Council ordering up from storage its electric truck fleet from the early 1920s, which could have the advantage of enabling the Council to meet its greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The post includes this Alexander Turnbull Library image by The Press newspaper photographer Samuel Heath Head.
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By 1915 the Council's Municipal Electricity Department in Armagh Street was charging car batteries overnight, when cheaper off-peak rates were offered between 10 pm and 7 am. The two 100 Kilowatt generators were driven by a pair of steam engines powered by the Council's refuse destructor. In 1921, at the peak of their popularity, the M.E.D. was charging the batteries of 51 vehicles, of which 40 were privately owned, with the other 11 belonging to the Council. The City Council's Municipal Electricity Department even offered hire-purchase agreements to assist companies and individuals to purchase electric vehicles.
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In this elevated westerly view of Bealey Avenue near the Carlton Mill Bridge can be seen the city's entire fleet of electric vehicles. The photograph can be dated to 1926 by the construction of the extent Fleming House at the corner of Park Terrace (Left).
Above: photographed on Park Terrace is the circa 1922 American Walker electric lorry of Wardell Brothers, the Cashel Street Grocers. To the Left is the extant 1915 Summers house. Below: also at the same location is the electric lorry of Sharpe Brothers, aerated water and cordial manufacturers. Both of these photographs were also taken by Samuel Heath Head.
Photo credits:
1926 electric vehicle fleet; Municipal Electricity Department archive, Orion New Zealand Ltd
Sharpe Brothers lorry; Alexander Turnbull Library, reference number: 1/1-011062-G
Wardell Brothers lorry; Alexander Turnbull Library, reference number: 1/1-007411-G
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By 1915 the Council's Municipal Electricity Department in Armagh Street was charging car batteries overnight, when cheaper off-peak rates were offered between 10 pm and 7 am. The two 100 Kilowatt generators were driven by a pair of steam engines powered by the Council's refuse destructor. In 1921, at the peak of their popularity, the M.E.D. was charging the batteries of 51 vehicles, of which 40 were privately owned, with the other 11 belonging to the Council. The City Council's Municipal Electricity Department even offered hire-purchase agreements to assist companies and individuals to purchase electric vehicles.
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In this elevated westerly view of Bealey Avenue near the Carlton Mill Bridge can be seen the city's entire fleet of electric vehicles. The photograph can be dated to 1926 by the construction of the extent Fleming House at the corner of Park Terrace (Left).
Above: photographed on Park Terrace is the circa 1922 American Walker electric lorry of Wardell Brothers, the Cashel Street Grocers. To the Left is the extant 1915 Summers house. Below: also at the same location is the electric lorry of Sharpe Brothers, aerated water and cordial manufacturers. Both of these photographs were also taken by Samuel Heath Head.
Photo credits:
1926 electric vehicle fleet; Municipal Electricity Department archive, Orion New Zealand Ltd
Sharpe Brothers lorry; Alexander Turnbull Library, reference number: 1/1-011062-G
Wardell Brothers lorry; Alexander Turnbull Library, reference number: 1/1-007411-G
Apr 16, 2009
House Price Comparisons
Christchurch most expensive house is reputed to be a $12 million McMansion by the Dudley Stream in suburban Shirley. But if you thought that local real estate values were still over valued in the current recession, then take a look at this terraced London number.
Situated in snooty Belgrave Square, with 12 bedrooms, 20ft ceilings, an indoor swimming pool in the basement, a gym and a home theatre, the house has been recently renovated by its Lebanese owner. It's just been sold for the equivelant of $258,370,000 Godzonian spondulicks.
Situated in snooty Belgrave Square, with 12 bedrooms, 20ft ceilings, an indoor swimming pool in the basement, a gym and a home theatre, the house has been recently renovated by its Lebanese owner. It's just been sold for the equivelant of $258,370,000 Godzonian spondulicks.
Apr 14, 2009
1906 Christchurch Panorama
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Photographed from the southern tower of the New Zealand Exhibition building is this easterly 1906 panorama of Christcurch. Restored from three photographs, across the foreground is Park Terrace.
1. The house to the extreme Left was constructed by George Braund Woodman in 1858. Originally a carpenter, Woodman (1826-1890) became a partner in the road contracting enterprise of Woodman & Wright, using much of the profit to make pastoral investments in the Ellesmere district.
1. The house to the extreme Left was constructed by George Braund Woodman in 1858. Originally a carpenter, Woodman (1826-1890) became a partner in the road contracting enterprise of Woodman & Wright, using much of the profit to make pastoral investments in the Ellesmere district.
Woodman was also the first Publican of the Devonshire Arms Hotel, original home of Latimer Square's Christchurch Club. Dating from 1852, the Devonshire Arms on the south-east corner of Durham and Peterborough Streets was rebuilt in 1876 as Barrett's Family Hotel to the design of the renowned William Barnett Armson. Subsequently renamed the Gladstone Hotel, it was one of the city’s oldest hostelries, being demolished in 2005 to make way for an office building. Parts of the 1876 structure have been incorporated in the new building.
3. The dwelling on the opposite corner is yet to be identified, but above it is Cranmer Square and on the sky line can be seen the tall chimney of the Christchurch City Council's 1903 refuse destructor near to the corner of Manchester and Armagh Streets. The incinerator not only generated the city's first electricty supply (with a pair of 100 Kilowatt generators driven by two steam engines), but also heated the adjacent 1908-1947 swimming baths in Manchester Street.
4. To the centre foregound, at the northern corner of Park Terrace and Chester Street, is the Reginald Cobb house of 1871. Cobb was a partner with Henry Sawtell in Cobb, Sawtell and Company, general, wine and spirit merchants and agents for the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency. In 1916 it would become Helen Connon Hall, a hostel for 70 university students until 1974. Sold by the University of Canterbury to the 1881 Cathedral Grammar School and renamed Chester Hall, it was demolished in 2001. The site is now occupied by the relocated 1886 St Saviour’s church from Lyttleton.
5. On the other corner of Chester Street is the 1880 home of the Reverend William Henry Elton (1845-1914), Cathedral Precentor. Elton's house was later purchased by the Church Property Trustees to become the Cathedral Grammar School. It was demolished in September 1985.
6. Next to it is the much smaller Sanders house, built in 1880 and demolished 1977.
7. To the far Right, at the corner of Rolleston Avenue and Armagh Street is the extant 1867 house built for the lawyer George Harper, fourth son of the city's first Bishop. It has been owned by the nearby Christ's College since 1918.
New Christchurch Civic Centre
Designed and built in 1974 by the Ministry of Works, the seven storey former Christchurch Mail Centre at 53-59 Hereford Street West, is now owned by Ngai Tahu Property Ltd. The building is shown under construction to the Left in the above aerial photograph.
To be leased for $8.2 million a year by the Christchurch City Council, the building is currently undergoing a $105 million refit, which will include a five metre extension to the Worcester Boulevard façade (above), three partial mezzanine floors and the installation of a $3.3 million electricity generation, heating and cooling plant, which will be fed by a biogas pipeline from the landfill and wastewater treatment facilty at Burwood.
To be leased for $8.2 million a year by the Christchurch City Council, the building is currently undergoing a $105 million refit, which will include a five metre extension to the Worcester Boulevard façade (above), three partial mezzanine floors and the installation of a $3.3 million electricity generation, heating and cooling plant, which will be fed by a biogas pipeline from the landfill and wastewater treatment facilty at Burwood.
With reconstruction (below) designed by the Architect Ian Athfield and scheduled for completion in mid 2010, the former New Zealand Post building will accommodate the Council's 1,116 staff.
Reputed as suitable for housing the Council for the next hundred years, the re-inforced concrete building is strong enough to support two further floors should more space be required. The Civic Centre will have a public café and a walkway from which the populace will be able to see into the council chamber.
With an allocation of $200,000, the Council is negotiatiing to acquire a large work of art depicting a feather for the building's foyer and another for the debating chamber.
Artistic licence showing the proposed main entrance from Worcester Boulevard would appear to indicate a somewhat shorter building.
Apr 13, 2009
Exploding Mythology at Dusk
Almost worthy of a chocolate box lid or even a postcard is this westerly view of Cathedral Square upon a recent early evening. The bod on the pedestal is a long deceased property speculator and middle class snob, who is recorded as having referred to the locals as the cattle. The statue was donated anonymously and the dubious inscription Founder of Canterbury added somewhat later.
"Old Jack" Godley (1814-1861), a founding member and second Lyttelton based Agent of the Canterbury Association, preferred the social life of Wellington, but still managed to make a fortune out of cronyism and conflict of interest in the local real estate market.
"Old Jack" Godley (1814-1861), a founding member and second Lyttelton based Agent of the Canterbury Association, preferred the social life of Wellington, but still managed to make a fortune out of cronyism and conflict of interest in the local real estate market.
The Irishman tired of the colony after only a couple of years and set himself up in some splendour in the exclusive London suburb of Fitzrovia. The 1810 Grade II listed former home of Godleys is now the St George Hotel.
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