TOWN HALL CO-OPERATION

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31088, 17 June 1966, Page 35 (Supplement)

TOWN HALL CO-OPERATION

Christchurch has needed a town hall for many years; but for a long time interminable arguments over the site ruled out any possibility of agreement. Now a site has been set aside, an architectural competition is in progress to decide the design, and within a year or two it is hoped that work will begin. When it does, it will be evidence of community and metropolitan co-operation. With Town Hall Promotion as the guiding force, the people of greater Christchurch and further afield have contributed £142.000 towards the cost, and public fund-raising has not yet ended. Once a site had been fixed, the local bodies

around Christchurch joined with the City Council in agreeing to find £50,000 a year for five years. The City Council itself has bought some of the land, sufficient for the town hall, costing £156.000, and still has £34,000 in hand. Controversy over the site ended in 1962 when the City Council brought Professor Gordon Stephenson, a town planning expert, from Perth to advise on the best site. Looking at the alternatives, he said that about halfway through his visit he kept returning to Victoria square as the site with the greatest potential. “I can see Victoria square as a great civic centre adorned by public buildings, enjoyed by citizens and set in the bustling commercial heart of the growing city region,” he said at the time. “One hundred years ago it had this potential. The original plan for Christchurch had proclaimed its destiny and the square was begin-

ning to function as the centre of public as distinct from commercial activity.” His plan, which has been adopted enthusiastically, is for Victoria square to become a focal point of the riverside park system and a handsome civic square containing about five acres of parkland free from traffic. Roads across the square will disappear and give way to a park-like meeting place for leisurely enjoyment Broad terraces will lead to a group of civic buildings, the main one being the town hall which will occupy that part of the site between the old Limes Hospital, now demolished, and Colombo street Within the block there will be new civic offices —a part of the scheme which is purely the City Council’s responsibility—ant, it has been proposed that the Canterbury Public Library will be housed in a new building which will allow for expansion.