IN AND AROUND EARLY CHRISTCHURCH—I A corner of Cranmer Square

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32637, 19 June 1971, Page 13

IN AND AROUND EARLY CHRISTCHURCH—I A corner of Cranmer Square

(By

J. A. HENDRY. F.N.Z.I.A.)

The north-east corner' of Cranmer Square vividly shows the growth from humble beginnings, of our city. Modest homes such as the nearer building in the sketch—familiarly known to many as the “Little Red Cottage”—still abound and have a charm of their own.

This one displays many of their characteristics, even allowing for alterations made over the years. Although the whole of the front gabled area is now one room, it was originally two with a central passage, probably lit by a small fanlight over a four-panelled door. The trim eaves and barge boards have very little overhang, while a fat chimney peers somewhat coyly over the steeply pitched roof, which most probably was shingled. Beyond lie another gabled roof and a more recent flat roofed addition.

the whole tied together with a neat picket fence con-

taining a tiny garden, shrubs and small trees. In the middle, and in fact on the comer of Kilmore Street is a more ambitious two-storey timber structure built right out to the street, and evidently a former shop with a dwelling over it. This, like the cottage, uses double hung windows to some effect, and here, too, the almost nonprojection of the eaves is adhered to, but with a difference. A neat fascia combines with the trim comer stops to give the effect of a simple comice and pilasters, an effect heightened by the mouldings at the top of the comer stops. Low window sills- allow the maximum

amount of light into the rooms behind and the project-

ing corner of the first floor over the angled ground floor is the forerunner of many a modem building design. The former shop windows have been .-replaced by less interesting types. Beyond this small sealed complex looms the massive slate roofed stone bulk of the old Normal School, which forms a fitting stop to the vista. And so Christchurch grew, from the humble cottage and the little comer shop to the majestic stone piles of its public and semi-public buildings, a record of the growth o? prosperity and faith in the future of this land.

[The pen-and-wash drawing is by A. J. Mair.]