CHRISTCHURCH SKETCH-BOOK—XII CHRIST’S COLLEGE

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31730, 13 July 1968, Page 5

CHRISTCHURCH SKETCH-BOOK—XII CHRIST’S COLLEGE

(Specially written for **TM Press” by J. A. HENDRY, P.N.Z.1.A.) Sited on 10 acres of land in the north-east comer of the Botanic Gardens, and bounded by the Avon River and Rolleston Avenue, Christ’s College is a well known and beautiful landmark in the City.

Planned in the formative years of the Canterbury Association as an Anglican church school for boys, it began life in Lyttelton in a room in the immigration barracks and moved to Christchurch in 1852. It was then in a room

adjacent to St Michael’s vicarage. In 1855, the present site was selected and in 1857, Luck, an architect commissioned to design the first buildings and later that year, Christ’s College, as named by

Bishop Harper, came Into being. Since then it has grown into the proud school it is today. Surrounding the main quadrangle, a vast square of lawn, there are many beautiful buildings designed by men whose names are well known; Luck, Speechley, Wood, Heimore and Cotterill, and more recently Pascoe, Warren and Mahoney, and Orchard and Allison. In the sketch are two of these buildings seen when looking through the main gates—Big School, probably the oldest in the complex, and the Hare Memorial Library opened in 1916 and designed by Cecil Wood. Both are constructed in stone with slate roofs, but at widely different periods, and show how excellently this material may be used. Differing types of stone have been used for the dressings and the verticality of the Hare Memorial admirably complements the length and expanse of beautiful slate roof of Big School. Window and archway treatments differ, yet combine to give a pleasant effect. Behind these appears in outline Chapman House, a modern classroom and laboratory block designed by Warren and Mahoney in the uncompromising manner of today. Yet strangely enough, in this whole complex of stone, birch and timber structures, it is not out of place; in fact its sharp accent enhances these older buildings.