A Poor Joke! A Premonition of What Was Yet to Come.
This photographically produced postcard of Christchurch’s Provincial Government buildings, appearing twisted and warped, was a semi-humorous card sent out at Christmas after... More »
Built with earthquakes in mind – St. Michaels and All the Angels Church c. 1871
The Anglican church of St. Michaels and All the Angels Church at 84 Oxford Terrace stands on the site of... More »
Quakes Haunt Christchurch Since Settlement Began
The hidden underlying geological issues beneath Christchurch’s swampy plains meant that city’s founders and their surveyors who chose this site... More »
Steam and Speed, Christchurch’s Railway Station in 1878
Tiny British-made locomotive engines first began chugging between Ferrymead’s Wharf on the estuary and the city on December 1st, 1863.... More »
From Hotel to Hospital – St. Helen’s Maternity, Durham Street, Sydenham, 1907
In 1907, a former public house on the corner of Durham and Battersea Street, Sydenham, was opened as the first women’s... More »
The Tepid Bath, Manchester Street, 1908
The Municipal Tepid Baths on Manchester Street provided the Christchurch public with a heated swimming facility from 1908 – 1947,... More »
Dead Bodies Stored in Hotel Cellars
Before Christchurch had a morgue, the gruesome task of storing a dead body was left to Christchurch’s public hotels. On... More »
St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Kilmore and Manchester Street corner
The wooden church of St Luke the Evangelist, stood in Manchester Street, just north of the Avon, from 1858 until... More »
The Savoy Theatre, Cathedral Square
After World War One, there was a growing appetite for the glitzy glamour of the ‘Jazz Age’ and Hollywood. Christchurch... More »
The Government Provincial Buildings
Christchurch has a frontier appearance about it in this photograph taken by Dr. Barker in 1860 from the tower of... More »