Edmonds Park

This unassuming suburban park is actually the setting of one of New Zealand's most iconic manufacturing facilities, the Edmonds Factory. Not only are Edmonds baking products ubiquitous in New Zealand households, the brand was made more so by the sheer scale and personality of their Waltham Factory, which served from the 1880s until 1990, complete with immaculate formal gardens.
This iconisim was reinforced by the factory's image as the cover of the Edmond's cookbook, which endlessly tops the bestseller lists and has done since 1908.
Alongside the cheery flowers and the endlessly optimistic slogan 'sure to rise', the Edmonds family's legacy runs deep in New Zealand's social history. As a large local employer, the factory was one where new labour laws were tried and enforced after the country's first labour legislation was introduced in the 1890s. The garden was the invention of the T J Edmonds, beginning in 1923, part of a nationwide move towards local and homegrown horticulture. After winning competitions for the gardens, Mr Edmonds later added a kindergarten to the grounds for his workers. When the labour laws called for a minimum wage and a 40 hour week in 1935, Edmonds complied.
Christchurch City Libraries have compiled a history of the numerous and generous contributions Mr Edmonds made to the City of Christchurch, most being architectural gifts. The factory itself was demolished in 1990. In the new millennium, products are made elsewhere and the Christchurch City Council has taken over the gardens as a reserve.

Edmonds Factory and Garden, Contour Creative Studio

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