Pegasus Press

Press, 14 November 1981, Page 16

Pegasus Press

Pencil drawing by

OWEN R. LEE

Text by

DERRICK ROONEY

The Pegasus Press building, near the Christchurch Public Hospital in Oxford Terrace, is not the oldest building in Christchurch but it may very well be the oldest building in continuing use in the city; and at least externally it is one of the most interesting survivors of the early years of colonial domestic architecture. The earliest (single-storey) section of this elegant salt-box building was erected, about 1850, by J. Longdon and H. Le Cren, who kept a general store; it is said that this section was prefabricated, arrived at the site in kit-set form, and was erected with full-height vertical stops to cover the joints. The two-storey main section was added by one of the later owners, of whom there have been about eight. Four of these were doctors, who occupied the building successively between 1853 and 1908, so that for more than half a century the building was known as “the doctor’s house.” It is thought that the first of these medical gentlemen built the two-storey section, with its distinctive roofline and chimneys. This was Dr B. Parkerson, who bought the property in 1853 from Captain Talbot Henry, to whom Le Cren had sold it in 1852. A prominent and influential medical man in the young colony,

Parkerson became the first surgeon at the Christchurch Hospital in 1862.

The next owner, Dr T. Fisher, was more a literary figure — he was a friend of Samuel Butler. Later Fisher bought the Grampians Station, in the McKenzie Country, and ownership of the house passed to a third prominent medical man, Dr J. W. S. Coward.

Dr Ben Moorhouse completed the medical interregnum, during which the old building was the venue for numerous important medical discussions, not least of which was the inaugural meeting of the Canterbury Medical Society. The building at present is occupied by the Pegasus Press, which bought it in 1952 for conversion into offices. The external colonial appearance has been carefully preserved, and the building is well maintained. Of wooden construction, it is a wellproportioned structure with some well-designed detail, including a charming semi-enclosed front porch in which the main door is fully protected from the weather. Other notable design features of this colonial structure include the ornate glazed chimney-pots and the wooden acorn-shaped droppers on the curved brackets beneath the front eaves.