Mrs Merritt’s Boarding House

Articles, Lost Christchurch

Drunkeness was a serious problem in Christchurch by the late 1870s.  It didn’t help that for a city of its size, there were 47 hotels and breweries as opposed to just 10 dentists and chemist …

S & H Nashelski’s Melbourne House

Articles, Lost Christchurch

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…

The Clarendon Hotel – from town house to public house fit for Royalty

Articles, Lost Christchurch

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…

From Dunstable House to J. Ballantyne & Co. Department Store

Articles, Lost Christchurch

Synonomous for offering the best quality goods and clothing since its humble beginnings back in 1854, is the iconic department store of Ballantynes. On the new town’s swampy plains, newly arr…

From Hotel to Hospital – St. Helen’s Maternity, Durham Street, Sydenham, 1…

Articles, Lost Christchurch

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…