Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Moira Fraser discussing options with the owner of The Twisted Hop on Poplar Lane which is under a demolition order.".
A building on Lichfield Street next to Poplar Lane. The top of the building crumbled onto the street during the 4 September earthquake, crushing a car. The inner walls are now visible on the top storey.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Looking down Poplar Lane to High Street taken from Bedford Row (telephoto view)".
A photograph looking north across Tuam Street to Poplar Lane. Bricks from earthquake-damaged buildings litter the lane. A car parked on the left side of the lane has been crushed by falling bricks. To the left of the photograph a pile of rubble from Plume is sitting on the road. Behind this are two mannequins, still hanging in the store.
A video of a tour of the Christchurch central city Red Zone. The video shows footage of the Edmond's Band Rotunda, Gloucester Street, the CTV building site, Poplar Lane, the McKenzie & Willis building, High Street, Lichfield Street, Colombo Street, Cathedral Square, and ChristChurch Cathedral.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Looking from Tuam Street north along Struthers Lane (Lichfield Street Bus Exchange with the facade removed in the background)".
An aerial photograph of High, Lichfield, Manchester, and Tuam Streets. The photographs has been captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "High Street can be seen running from the bottom left to the top right of the photograph. The old Majestic Theatre is prominent halfway up on the left. The prominent streets are Lichfield Street (on the left) and Tuam Street (on the right)".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Looking north-east from Alice in Videoland. IRD Building in the centre distance".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The view from the top of Alice in Videoland towards Poplar Lane, showing how little is left there. Twisted Hop had a 'make safe' status at the time of this picture, now changed to demolish".
An aerial photograph of High Street. The photograph has been captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "A detail of High Street between the Lichfield and Manchester Street intersection and the Tuam and Poplar Street intersection".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The view from the top of Alice in Videoland".
A sign outside Poplar Lane reading "Temporary Road Closure, Poplar Street will be closed between Lichfield Street and Tuam Street from 7am on 09:08:2010 to 6pm on 22:11:2010, Enquiries: 0800 SAFE 4U". "Danger Keep Out" tape can be seen behind the sign.
The major earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 brought to an abrupt end a process of adaptive reuse, revitalisation and gentrification that was underway in the early 20th century laneways and buildings located in the south eastern corner of the Christchurch Central Business District. Up until then, this location was seen as an exemplar of how mixed use could contribute to making the central city an attractive and viable alternative to the suburban living experience predominant in New Zealand. This thesis is the result of a comprehensive case study of this “Lichfield Lanes” area, which involved in depth interviews with business owners, observation of public meetings and examination of documents and the revitalisation research literature. Findings were that many of the factors seen to make this location successful pre-earthquakes mirror the results of similar research in other cities. These factors include: the importance of building upon historic architecture and the eclectic spaces this creates; a wide variety of uses generating street life; affordable rental levels; plus the dangers of uniformity of use brought about by focussing on business types that pay the most rent. Also critical is co-operation between businesses to create and effectively market and manage an identifiable precinct that has a coherent style and ambience that differentiates the location from competing suburban malls. In relation to the latter, a significant finding of this project was that the hospitality and retail businesses key to the success of Lichfield Lanes were not typical and could be described as quirky, bohemian, chaotic, relatively low rent, owner operated and appealing to the economically important “Creative Class” identified by Richard Florida (2002) and others. In turn, success for many of these businesses can be characterised as including psychological and social returns rather than simply conventional economic benefits. This has important implications for inner city revitalisation, as it contrasts with the traditional focus of local authorities and property developers on physical aspects and tenant profitability as measures of success. This leads on to an important conclusion from this research, which is that an almost completely inverted strategy from that applied to suburban mall development, may be most appropriate for successful inner city revitalisation. It also highlights a disconnection between the focus and processes of regulatory authorities and the outcomes and processes most acceptable to the people likely to frequent the central city. Developers are often caught in the middle of this conflicted situation. Another finding was early commitment by businesses to rebuild the case study area in the same style, but over time this waned as delay, demolition, insurance problems, political and planning uncertainty plus other issues made participation by the original owners and tenants impossible or uneconomic. In conclusion, the focus of inner city revitalisation is too often on buildings rather than the people that use them and what they now desire from the central city.