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…
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 …
A photograph showing Geoff Devoll and Anna Kouwenhoven in their 'red zoned' home, soon to be demolished following the series of earthquakes in Christchurch.
A photograph captioned, "So we're just sitting here not knowing. And okay, sooner or later it will come to an end, eventually it has to. It's the not knowing that kills you".
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…
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…
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…
It is midday on the busy intersection of Manchester, High and Lichfield Streets when this photograph was taken from the corner of Bedford Row c. 1904. The street is full of activity as shoppers mak…
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…
A photograph captioned, "After the September earthquake, it was more a simple case of something gets broken and it gets repaired. Then came February, and June as well, and suddenly it's just not so straightforward anymore".
A PDF copy of pages 50-51 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'LUXCITY'. Photographs: Bridget Anderson and Douglas Horrell
A photograph captioned, "I wonder what they're going to do with the land? We'd like a community garden. That's our aim, but I don't know what they're going to do. Seems like nobody does".
A photograph captioned, "My daughter grew up in this house. She's 10 now. She is going to miss it - and Dallington. It's where she's grown up, what she knows. She'll miss it alright. Me too".
A photograph captioned, "Nobody’s trained for this, you go to your lawyer and they can’t give you an answer because they've never faced this before, so yeah, even they are scratching around trying to find out".
It’s that time of year again. Behold! Some of our favourite discoveries and images from 2015. It’s been an eventful twelve months. Archaeology happened. Sites were surveyed, excavated, photographed, investigated, disseminated and ruminated upon. Clues were followed and mysteries unrav...
Early photographs are the best. They encompass everything from the utterly absurd to the momentous to the mundane. They provide us with a window into the past that is rare and wonderful (especially from an archaeological perspective), putting faces to … Continue reading →
This week’s post is a bit different. It’s not directly about Christchurch archaeology, but it is about an archaeologist working in Christchurch. We’ve taken a bunch of photographs of one of the desks in our office and we want you … Continue reading →
A photograph captioned, "So it's been an eventful couple of years. I think the first earthquake, it was just so totally unexpected. You went to bed one night and when you woke up - in just a few seconds- everything was different than it had been before".
Photograph captioned, "I'll have mixed feelings when I leave. I'll be sad to go - and sad to see my house go. But I hope it'll be a good feeling once it's over. I'll be pleased to get to that stage and feel like I'm finally moving on".
A document with photographs and details of the four researchers from the National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCWNZ) project, Women's Voices: Recording women's stories of the Canterbury earthquakes. The researchers include Amanda England (from 2011 - 2012), Elizabeth Ashby (from 2013 - 2014), Rosemary Baird (2012 - 2014) and Brigid Buckenham (2013 - 2014).
A document with a photograph and details of the Research Committee of the National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCWNZ) project, Women's Voices: Recording women's stories of the Canterbury earthquakes. The Research Committee consisted of Liz Gordon, Rosemary Du Plessis, Judith Sutherland, Helen Gibson, Maureen Fordham, and Cheryl Anderson.
A photograph captioned, "I was reading in the paper this morning about one of the people who was orange and then went red yesterday. They said they were really glad they'd gone red rather than green-blue. Green-blue is the one they're going to have problems with".
A photograph captioned, "In the 1930s the traffic in Gayhurst Road was so light that I can remember playing hockey and cricket with apple boxes for wickets. If a car or cart came along there was plenty of time to shift the boxes to let them past".
A photograph captioned, "I guess the only good thing that came out of the earthquake is that we know the residents better. It definitely bought people together, and the support was incredible. If you didn't know your neighbours before, you definitely knew them after the quake. We made friends out of this".
A PDF copy of pages 70-71 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Bandaid Artwork'. Photographs: Heather Hayward (top left), Reuben Woods (top right), Jenna Lynn Brown (bottom left and right)
A photograph captioned, "It feels like it has been a really on-going process. We weren't in the head space for it really, because when you retire, you think you're in your retirement home and you're there to stay. You don't expect to have to move on. To do all this".
Photograph captioned, "Dallington used to be the most popular suburb in New Zealand to live in. And that makes sense, because it's halfway between the beach and the city. It's close enough to town but far enough away, as well. There were good schools in the area. The mall was close. It's got the river and the tree lined sections, everything. It was special all right".
A photograph captioned, "We get the young fellas to come in and do the upkeep on the government houses that have been sold. They cut down all the long grass and just tidy up all the fire risk sections. This one's easier cos the house is gone. If you keep it tidy it looks tidy from the road. There's people living here, and there's nothing worse than looking over your house and seeing grass this high".
A photograph captioned, "I miss living here, right by the river. I'd been there for quite a long time, 12 years or so. I realize now I took it for granted a bit. I used to get a bit bored with having a big old house that was cold, difficult to clean, and perhaps hard to keep warm. But now, when I go back there, I miss living in a big house by the river with an open fire and a big lounge and everything. I had the park there on the other side of the river. And there was a little bridge down there where you could walk over to it. There was actually a circuit you could do, up to the New Brighton Bridge and back. Yeah, it was beautiful".