Canterbury Tales: Architecture Edition

Well, folks, it’s crunch time. Only a week and a half left of classes and then it’s on to bigger and better things – namely exams. So, as I’ve been confined to my room and various libraries around campus and have nothing adventurous to post, I decided I’d give you a bit of a visual tour of some of the architecture around the Canterbury (not just Christchurch) region.

I haven’t included much domestic architecture because, well, there isn’t much. There are a lot of subdivisions with a lot of houses that look the same. Here’s a basic overview of the exterior of your average Canterbury house: one storey, bungalow-style; stucco or brick walls; one-car garage; very, very square – no curves. There are obviously exceptions, but this is the dominant model. The exceptions generally occur in the wealthier neighbourhoods in the hills, as you’ll see shortly.

Speaking of seeing shortly, let’s get on with it, shall we?




I was unable to find architects for most of these structures. For those who are interested, here’s what I did find:

Christchurch Cathedral was designed in 1864 by Sir Gilbert Scott, an English architect with a portfolio of over 800 buildings including the chapel at St. John’s College, Cambridge and the chapel at Exeter College, Oxford. Construction of the cathedral  was supervised by Benjamin Mountfort, who went on to design the first University of Canterbury campus (now the Arts Centre), the Canterbury Museum, and the Canterbury Provincial Council buildings in the mid-late 1800s.

The Old Post Office was designed in 1875 by the Colonial Architect of the time, W.H. Clayton. As far as I can tell, the only other things he designed were post offices in other parts of New Zealand.

The Old Regent Theatre building was designed in 1905 by the Luttrell Bros., who were the first to introduce the so-called Chicago skyscraper to New Zealand.

The Sign of the Takahe was designed in 1918 by J.G. Collins, who was also involved in the design of Christchurch’s early Library Chambers, the Press (Christchurch’s newspaper) building, and the Nurses’ Memorial Chapel, which is the only memorial in the country built specifically to honor New Zealand women killed in war.

The Christchurch Town Hall, South Christchurch Library, and New Brighton Library were all designed  in the 1960s-70s by architects from the firm Warren and Mahoney, who are also responsible for the New Zealand Chancery building in Washington, D.C., among others.