Blackheath sold to developer

Press, 1 March 1984, Page 1

Blackheath sold to developer

Blackheath, Christchurch’s small slice of Coronation Street, has been bought by a city property developer, Mr Gerald Cresswell. The 10 terrace-style houses at Nos 63 to 81 Durham Street were built in 1876 by Frank Hitchings, a bricklayer who emigrated from England in 1872, who built them in his spare time and named them collectively after the area he had lived in in London.

He had a large family and when he died he

ordered that the properties be put up for auction with the condition that if any of his children wanted them they could have them by paying one pound more than the highest bid. This process ' continued through two generations and Mr Frank Hitchings, grandson, and namesake of the builder, owned seven of the houses until yesterday. He said that the remaining three had passed out of the family at his father’s death because he had not

been able to afford to'buy all 10 at the time. However, Blackheath has now found a single owner again in Mr Cresswell who approached Mr Hitchings about six months ago and asked if he would consider selling. He had already bought the other three houses. The houses, listed by the Christchurch City Council as being of historic interest, are in an industrial zone but are now let as residential flats. Mr Cresswell said that he

was looking at three development proposals but that the one he was most likely to opt for was to improve the properties and convert them into small offices. He would advertise them for this purpose at the week-end and gauge by the .response whether it was feasible. Alternatively, he might “tidy them up and keep them as flats.” His third option, and one he would prefer to avoid, was to demolish the build-

ings and put warehouses on the site. “I would not like to do that because they are unique architecturally and they are really too good to pull down,” he said. The houses need reroofing and the brickwork requires maintenance but Mr Cresswell thought they “would come up quite well.” Mr Cresswell recently bought Ingolds building in Colombo Street, Sydenham, opposite the Club Hotel.