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The Royal Exchange, Cathedral Square, 1905

Articles, Lost Christchurch

The Royal Exchange’s beautiful tower, dome and decorative facade is taking shape as the building nears completion. Fresh to the shores of New Zealand, the Australian architect brothers …

The Square and the Disappearing Old World of Christchurch

Articles, Lost Christchurch

Dominating a once simpler Cathedral Square, are the formidable buildings – Government Life Insurance Building, the Grand Theatre, the Crystal Palace Theatre, the Reuters Telegram Company Buil…

William H. Harris, Wholesale Tinsmith, 101 Colombo Street, 1898

Articles, Lost Christchurch

The neat and narrow, plastered brick building of William Henry Harris, Tinsmith of Christchurch stood at 101 Colombo Street in a matching line with a set of others. Standing opposite Mason Struther…

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 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…

Iconic Ice-cream Charlie, Cathedral Square

Articles, Lost Christchurch

‘Ice Cream Charlie’ operated a well-known ice cream cart in Cathedral Square for much of the first half of the twentieth century. He was reknowned for his friendly nature and delicious …

The Canterbury Ladies’ Slaves

Articles, Lost Christchurch

Imagine you were born 100 years ago… what job would you have done? If you are female, part of the working class and living in England, then there is a one in three chance that you would be pa…

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 …

Telephone Girls, The Telegraph and Post Office, Cathedral Square

Articles, Lost Christchurch

Written by Helen Solomons In 1879, my great grandfather, Mortimer Cashman Corliss, was promoted to head telegraphist in Christchurch’s newly built Post and Telegraph Office in Cathedral Squar…

Are Historic Buildings Important?

Articles, Lost Christchurch

Up until February 22nd, 2011, the city of Christchurch was a unique, historic and cultural living and breathing entity. Inherited from a long list of valuable contributors dating back to its incep…

Lichfield Street, between Colombo and High Streets, 1883

Articles, Lost Christchurch

The growing permanence and sophistication of Christchurch, is evident in this photograph of Lichfield Street. Taken by the Burton Brother’s, the photograph shows us that the little frontier …

Sumner Tram Excursion

Articles, Lost Christchurch

On this summer’s day in 1906, the ten o’clock morning tram to Sumner is about to depart from outside the Royal Exchange in Cathedral Square. An excursion to Sumner was a popular outing …

Down Town from High Street

Articles, Lost Christchurch

The pace of town appears leisurely as pedestrians meander across High Street, while several trams slowly move past them c. 1929. There are a large number of men on they bicycles – perhaps th…

Sharing Memories

Articles, Lost Christchurch

In response to the loss of our inner city of Christchurch, we were inspired to create this website, Lost Christchurch, as a freely accessible archive of photographs, social history and memories of …

Site Founder

Articles, Lost Christchurch

Wendy Riley A relative newcomer to Christchurch, Wendy has deep-rooted connections to the city. Her ancestors, like many colonial New Zealanders, traced their origins to Scotland and England. After…

Performance of Bridges during the 2010 Darfield and 2011 Christchurch Eart…

Research papers, The University of Auckland Library

The region in and around Christchurch, encompassing Christchurch city and the Selwyn and Waimakariri districts, contains more than 800 road, rail, and pedestrian bridges. Most of these bridges are reinforced concrete, symmetric, and have small to moderate spans (15–25 m). The 22 February 2011 moment magnitude (Mw) 6.2 Christchurch earthquake induced high levels of localized ground shaking (Bradley and Cubrinovski 2011, page 853 of this issue; Guidotti et al. 2011, page 767 of this issue; Smyrou et al. 2011, page 882 of this issue), with damage to bridges mainly confined to the central and eastern parts of Christchurch. Liquefaction was evident over much of this part of the city, with lateral spreading affecting bridges spanning both the Avon and Heathcote rivers.