Fire guts Hagley pavilion

Press, 2 July 1979, Page 6

Fire guts Hagley pavilion

Fire gutted the United Tennis Club’s pavilion in North Hagley Park last evening. The two-storey wooden building was reduced to a charred shell of timber with the walls barely standing, after fire swept through it about 7.45 p.m. Small pockets of fire were- still burning in the pavilion at 9 ’ p.m. Seven fire appliances answered a

call from a motorist who noticed the fire as he drove past the park. One bystander said he had seen a glow in the sky shortly before 8 p.m. Then the building had suddenly “shot up in flames.” A small crowd was drawn by the glow of the fire and the thick smoke which spread over Riccarton. The Ministry of Trans-

port closed Riccarton Avenue to traffic while firemen doused the flames. The pavilion was shared by the tennis club, a bowling club, and a croquet club. - It is believed that nets, lawn mowers, and rollers were in the building. The tennis club had asked the Christchurch City Council, which owns the land, for another pavilion

and had started fundraising two years ago, according to a club member. The building had been in a poor state of repair and many weatherboards had been rotten. It was the second fire in two months to destroy a building in Hagley Park. The Botanic Gardens’ tea kiosk was razed on April 25 in suspicious circumstances.