Face Of A City UNIQUE CHANCE IN LAY-OUT

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31007, 12 March 1966, Page 5

Face Of A City UNIQUE CHANCE IN LAY-OUT

'THE STREET PLANS of Lyttelton, A Sumner, and Christchurch were laid out by Edward Jollie, who arrived in August, 1849, as assistant to Captain Thomas.

The third of six articles specially written by RUTH FRANCE for the Christchurch Civic Trust.

Seldom, one imagines, have planners had such an opportunity in laying out a complete city, starting from scratch, with nothing to be accommodated save natural obstacles, though in Lyttelton these, being steep hillsides, were not minor ones.

The streets were named for the sees of the Church of England, Johannes Andersen writes: "Captain Thomas, with his gold-rimmed spectacles on, read out the names of the sees, and if they sounded well the names were given to the streets.”

Because Lyttelton was then intended as the chief town, it gained the names of the important sees, Canterbury, Oxford, London, Norwich, Exeter. Sumner, surveyed by

Jollie in November, 1849, was given York, Ely, Carlisle, with the result that when it came to the turn of Christchurch Thomas ran out of names, and must include the Irish Kilmore, Armagh, St. Asaph, and also Barbadoes, Antigua, Colombo. Sumner was named by Captain Thomas after Archbishop Sumner, Primate of England and president of the Canterbury Association. Due partly to the delay in finishing the road over Evans pass, the first plans for Sumner came to nothing, and the land was sold as rural sections.

There was further delay because the railway tunnel through the hills, completed after seven years work in 1867, gave direct access to Lyttelton. Sumner was not constituted a borough until

May, 1891, and the original street names were never used, though some were later given to streets in Christchurch. Square Plan Christchurch was laid out as a square, with all the streets running east and west, north and south, save Oxford and Cambridge terraces round the river. The river itself was named after the Avon in Ayrshire, the home of the Deans family, who were the first white settlers on the plains. The first plan of 1849 was redrawn in 1850, allowing for the continuation of the Sumner road to the Square. This road has become High street. The new plan also allowed Whately road, now Papanui road and Victoria street, to continue to Victoria square, which was then Market place. Cathedral square is named as such in 1850, though in the previous plan this was Ridley square, the change being made by the Canterbury Association. The cathedral itself did not have even a foundation stone until 1864, and was not completed, after many delays, until 1904. Reserve Areas

The plan of the city was bounded by Salisbury, Barbadoes, St. Asaph, and Antigua streets, which last continued across the Avon into what is now Rolleston avenue, though no bridge was marked. The only bridges on the

plan were at Worcester street and in Market place. On the north, east, and south of the town were areas marked as reserves, which were intended for future subdivision, and were indeed surveyed into sections later in the same year. But the plan for Christchurch, as for the whole of the Canterbury Settlement, aimed at an avoidance of dispersal. The town should be compact until expansion was necessary. Hagley Park lay to the west, an area larger than the then plan of the town, and the land in the loop of the river where now lie the hospital and the Botanic Gardens was marked as a government claim. Botanic Gardens The Botanic Gardens and the Cattle Market, with the abattoir—unhappy juxtaposition—were planned in the loop of the river opposite the Barbadoes street cemetery, which had attached to it the dissenters’ and the Roman Catholic cemeteries, these being tiny plots compared to that of the Church of England.

All these areas were in the town reserve, which was bounded by the roads, clearly marked on the map but nameless until later in the year, when they became the Town Belt. Later they were named Deans avenue, and Bealey, Fitzgerald, and Moorhouse avenues, while Antigua street, north of the Avon, became Rolleston avenue.

These last four were named for the superintendents of Canterbury, James Edward Fitz Gerald, William Sefton Moorhouse, Samuel Bealey, and William Rolleston. Four Churclien Four churches and church schools were planned: St. Lukes, St. Michaels, St. Johns in Latimer square, and another in Cranmer square on land which until recently remained a Church of England girls' school. All were to have schools attached. St. Michael’s school is the only one in its original position. The hospital was to be in the north end of Market place, and the gaol stood in its own safe triangle bounded by Madras, Tuam, and what is now High street. There, in 1850, was the plan. Where was the city? “A" huts appeared in Hagley Park.

It is recorded that by the middle of 1851 there were more than a hundred homes in Christchurch, though the streets were marked only by surveyors' pegs in the tussock.

Photographs of that time do not give an impression of many buildings. The Land Office, Dr. Barker's house, St. Michael's Church, and a few other wooden buildings set No Trees in a lonely fashion among the flax and raupo and the tutu in the swamp that was then the centre of the city. A footbridge crossed the river at Worcester street. There was not a tree in sight. These people planted trees. Dr. Barker, who wore a solar topee against the heat of the Christchurch summer, planted the first bluegum, which within fifteen years was a large tree. It was not the only •one.

By that time newcomers thought that the area was naturally wooded and by 1880 a view west from the bidcony of the unfinished cathedral was that of well-spaced buildings, some empty land, and a multitude of large trees. Those thirty years had transformed the site of the city.