Signs of a community revival in Sydenham

Press, 9 August 1985, Page 18

Signs of a community revival in Sydenham

JAMES NORMAN.

a student in the

University of Canterbury - post-graduate journalism course.

Tbc futnr? of School may not be =ll i£a: rosy but a: to close down because of a lack of students are receding in 1851. the school had 1510 students. and until the IP3£« it was one of the larges: tn the countrv. Today. with jus: 55 primary children. Sydenham School has sittmoed to the second smallest in Christchurch. Its usefulness has m recent rears been cuesttoned. and if its roll drops 'much further closing would be inevitable. Now there are signs that Sydenham is on is way back as a residential and that -s.j school may rise with it. Tucked behind the Sydenham Post Office at the comer of Colombo and Brougham Streets. Sydenham School today gives no hint of better times. The block of seven classrooms, built in 1931. and the administration hut wear dapples of primer, awaiting their fiveyearly fick of paint. They skirt an untidy concrete and grass paddock, about 80 metres to a side.

No sign remains of the original eight-room, bell-towered, wooden structure, nor of the two brick buildings added in 1884 and 1919.

When the school's roil was at its largest, in the 1890 s. many of the children could not be squeezed into classrooms, and were taught in churches and halls.

On one occasion, "two separate trams of six double-decker trailers conveyed about one thousand pupils and mothers to Sumner for the day," reports a Federation of

University Womens publication. "The Model Borough." Other schools around South Christchurch opened to take some stretched’ facilities. Ironically, it is these schools that would absorb Sydenham's students if the school were to close. Shona Mann. who edited "The Model Borough." links the drop in Sydenham's roll to the decline tn the numbers of families living in the area.

Attracted by cheap land, manufacturing moved into Sydenham in the 19305. Over the following decades industrialisation increased pushing middle-class families out of the "area.

The result can be seen in places like Coleridge Street, where old, and sometimes disused, houses are surrounded by car wreckers' yards, print shops, and electrical component manufacturers. In this street, and many others, the people who live there are less in evidence than the fiercely barking German shepherd dogs which they install by their front gates. Commenting on the absence of families in similar streets. Shona Mann suggests: "In a way. this is going full circle." The circle's fourth quadrant is urban renewal. "All that Sydenham is waiting for is someone to develop it." she insists.

Urban renewal is not a new idea for Sozic development has been undertaken by the City Council. I: includes the Brougham Village complex and the Norman Kirk Courts — groups of pensioner fiats and single units. But. explains the City Planner. Bill Williams, only so much resource can be devoted to one area. “It was hoped that City works would stimulate private development." he adds, "but we have not researched the extent to which this has happened."

Some new houses are being built, particularly in the less industrialised areas south of Brougham Street. One example is the "family home units" now’ under construction in Boon Street, A couple of streets north, in Milton Street, a similar project is in progress. According to a city councillor. Alistair James, there’ is a more immediate force at work in Sydenham. "It is one of these areas where young people on low incomes can afford good-sized family homes in the £30.000 range." he says. "There's a tendency for people to move close to the city, not just in Sydenham, but in places like Addington, too." Cr James infers that as young families prosper, they may renovate or rebuild. .An upgrading of the locality may in turn attract more families, looking for the

services onerea m the city. A real estate dealer. James Grant, who has been operating in the area for IS years, agrees that more young families are moving into Sydenham. But, be adds, his buyers are still predominantly "investors and people who work in the large factories 'around the area."

The North Canterbury Education Board has given some attention to Svdenham as the school’s 1972 roll of 170 fell over 10 vears to the

level a: which it now stares. "When the roil started falling there were meetings with community groups." recalls the board manager. David Gilson. "The discussion centred around repopulating toe area. With pupil numbers now "stable." the board feels that Sydenham is still a "viable unit." "Its students could be absorbed by either Waltham. Beckenham, or Addington, but they're all a far distance from Sydenham." says Mr Wilson.

"Sydenham's no more a financial liability than schools on the outskirts of town. Staffing is the biggest cost, and this is based on numbers of children, so they would be the same if the children were at other schools."

Sydenham School, then, seems reasonably assured of survival in the short term. It may even be the school will gain in strength. Its acting principal. Miss Audrey Williamson, would be the first to agree with this. "The future looks good We've got more younger children coming into the school" she savs.