IN THE HEART OF HEREFORD STREET

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32536, 20 February 1971, Page 13

IN THE HEART OF HEREFORD STREET

(By

W. J. A. BRITTENDEN

To say that No. 88 Hereford Street—the tall building in the picture on the right—still stands is perhaps toying with the truth. Today it is jambed between, and certainly supported by, more substantial buildings on either side.

This is not to suggest that the building has not lasted 110 years in fair condition, it is just that it couldn’t fall down if it wished to.

Hereford Street No. 88 wasn’t always 88; for more than fifty years of its life it was No. 211. But that is not correct either. For its first 20-odd years it, along with other city sections, had no number; but in 1885 Wise’s Directory lists it as 211. By 1920 it is reduced to 88.

In the earlier years the numbering was started at Fitzgerald Avenue and went both ways. That is, working westwards into the city, the numbering started at the avenue with 1; but it also started with 1 eastward into Linwood.

In fact, no number is necessary for the reader to identify this little piece of the past, positioned opposite the Post Office Savings Bank in Hereford Street west. It should be safe to assume that the building on its right where, about 1880, Harper, Harper, Scott and Maude, solicitors (Hereford Street had already assumed its traditional atmosphere) were in their two-storey brick building was where the Harper brothers had a previous partnership. The building on the comer of Oxford Terrace, where the Victoria Chambers and Phoenix House stand today is, of course, the office and works of the "Canterbury Standard.” Surprisingly little seems to be known about the “Standard” —has anyone living ever seen a copy of it? but it lasted from 1854 to 1866 without setting the near-by Avon on fire.

Guise Brittan, A. J. Alport, J. F. Ballard, C. Wellington Bishop and Richard Packer were some of the more prominent men amongst the proprietors. James Willis, later of Willis and Aiken, was the printer. Later the building was used as a hotel but at the end of the century a taxidermist was in occupation. More sand If having offices in Hereford Street today is something of a cachet, it could hardly have been so in 1861 when this picture was probably taken. There is little to distinguish it from other early Christchurch streets—except perhaps that there

appears to be more sand there.

In some early photographs a low sand bank is easily discernible on the south side of Hereford Street. Hie informed surface (mind you, many streets were still in tussock at the time) the bare pathway and scattered build-

ings often unpainted, were typical. Brief notes on the three citizens appearing in the picture are based largely on that invaluable Museumhoused biographical index prepared by the late G. R. MacDonald.

William Wilson, standing on the left, was bom in 1819 in Scotland and died in November, 1897, after making an outstanding contribution to the city’s progress. He was not, strictly speaking, a Canterbury (Association) Pilgrim since he arrived in Lyttelton, via Nelson, four months before the First Four Ships, dropped anchor. However he soon involved himself in all aspects of community life and even an incomplete list of his activities makes impressive reading. School site He was a member of the first municipal council (1862), was the first Mayor of Christchurch (1868), a member of the Provincial Council and of the House of Representatives. As a horticultural gardener and nurseryman, he was

responsible for introducing many plants into the province. Among these were cocksfoot, broom, pinus radiata and gorse (in quantity!). He chose the site for the Christchurch High School after having, in 1854, called the meeting which decided to build St Andrew’s Church; was a member of the Gas Company, of the Horticultural Society, Acclimatisation Society, and so on. He was a very successful business man who acquired the Triangle (Colombo, Cashel, High Streets) for £l2O. He was to see sections of it sold for a hundred times that amount.

In his early years he had the use of “botanical garden reserves” land very cheaply and he acquired Canterbury Association lands, when the association was wound up, on very advantageous terms. His nursery—he occupied the entire Manchester-Cashel-

Madras-Lichfield block—was another property which, of course, rocketed in value. He was one of a syndicate which worked out a proposal to have a railway station in central Christchurch (in his nursery, to be exact) and he presided over a meeting in October, 1872, which recommended the construction of a tramway through Christchurch to Papanui. According to Selwyn Bruce, the appelation “Cabbage” was given to him by the youthful George Hart when Sir Cracroft Wilson, meeting William Wilson for the first time said, “Who the devil are you?” Before William could answer, the son of the White Hart proprietor interposed:

“Call him ’Cabbage’,” referring to the hat plaited for him by Maori friends from ti or cabbage tree leaves. “ ’Cabbage’ Wilson has been described as one of the most dynamic characters among Canterbury settlers, an 1867 description picturing him as a tall man of great girth, with dark eyes and aggressive expression. Another, later, picture is of a man “energetic, plausible, pushing, healthy, strong, vigorous, of immense energy and unequalled volubility of speech, letting out Johnsonian words and phrases a master of repartee who wore a blue (some say black) cloth suit with very wide trousers.”

In the arly seventies he moved into a home in a 13acre property in Lord Brougham Street, now the site of Nazareth House. This busy pioneer’s useful community service petered out after some unwise business deals. After an old English custom he was presented with a small gold cradle when, still Mayor, his wife presented him with twins.

Temporary office z On the right of the group is H. B. Johstone who was bom in 1830, came out to Auckland in 1853, returned to England in 1855 and came back (to Canterbury) in 1858.

garden in Christchurch, and on more than one occasion his garden won. The trophy, however, went to his gardener, George Milne. For some years W. H. Wynn-Williams was president of the Christchurch Club, just across the square; he was a prominent figure in the Popular Amusement Association which organised the annual sports—usually in Latimer Square; he advocated the cutting of Worcester street straight across the same square but he led the movement to prevent Canterbury College being built in Hagley Park. Public meetings His contemporaries saw him as temperamentally pugnacious and a man who loved convening public meeting against the Government of the day. His most lively controversy was on behalf of the Ratepayers’ Protection Association which opposed the City Council striking a rate, denying that it had the right to do so. But to return to No. 88, or 211. Wise’s Directory for 1878 shows the building to be occupied by Wynn-Wil-liams and the New Zealand Trust and Loan Agency with Charles Robert Blakeston as manager. In 1885 the number is listed as 213, accupied by Wynn-Williams and Deacon with the Trust and Agency Coy of Australasia on the ground floor. In 1890 WynnWilliams and Son are back in 211 with Arthur E. G. Rhodes, barrister, and the Trust and Agency as fellow tenants.

i Harry Bell Johnstone ap- ' patently began the practice of his profession in a temporary office in Cashel Street from where he moved to an office on the site of the Post Office, possibly occupied while a new office (No. 88) was being built in Hereford Street on a property seemingly the property of James Shand.

The property on the right of No. 88 is that of Harper and Co., which was in 1868, replaced by a brick building which, at a later date, was doubled in size.

The year the office was built, Harry Bell Johnstone took into partnership William Henry Wynn-Wil-liams (the central figure in the group) who bought him out in 1864- Wynn-Wililams (1828-1916), the son of a Welsh vicar, educated for the Indian army but subsequently for the law, to the practice of which he was admitted in 1857. He was admitted to the local bar in 1860 and built his reputation largely on his 1866 defence of Derby Meher on a murder charge. Later he was to be the Provincial Solicitor, member of the Provincial Council, 186870 and member of the House of Representatives for Heathcote, 1881-84.

Pleasant home

W. H. Wynn-Williams is remembered for his occupancy of the Cashel-Barba-does - Hereford - Latimer Square property he bought from John Hall who had built with imported materials a very pleasant home and laid out a garden there. It was these grounds that, under the new owner, became one of the show places of Christchurch.

Five years later W. H. Wynn-Williams is apparently on his own while A. E. G. Rhodes is now a M.H.R. By 1900 Wynn-Williams has entered into a long partnership with Matthew Stoddart Brown. The Trust and Agency Coy and Frederick Strouts, architect and secretary to the Rhodes Convalescent Home, also share the building. Other quarters And so to 1916 and the reversal of the numbering pattern and 211 becomes 105 and William Henry WynnWilliams has ended his long tenancy; 55 years less a brief period “in the wilderness" nearby when a quarrel with the landlord saw him occupying other quarters. But W-W has a rival, if not a superior. Mr L. W. Gee, barrister and solicitor has occupied the first floor since 1920. But that is not the end of the longevity this old building appears to engender. The first owner, J. Shand, had the property from 1851 to 1910; a syndicate of Messrs Tonks, Norton and Palmer to 1941, and Gough, Gough and Hamer since then.

Moreover Wynn-Williams appears to have been extraordinarily generous in his lending of it for public and church functions. Unfortunately, I have not recorded these occasions as they have cropped up in my reading, but bazaars, garden parties and picnics are referred to frequently. Wynn-Williams presented trophies for the best-kept

This account leaves a number of questions to be answered and gaps to be filled in. It also leaves a question for readers to answer. Between No. 88 and the Harper building (in the gap shown in our photograph) there is today the tall, narrow entrance to the Post Office Parcels Branch' which was, yesterday, the Wentworth and the day before, the Olympia Skating Rink. What memories have you of the rink?