Victoria Square Christchurch

It was the ancient Waitaha people who originally built a large Pa, named Puari, on the banks of the River Avon (Okataro), with a centre near Victoria Square, and lived here from around 1000-1500AD. Knowledge of this settlement is thanks to their various Urupa (graveyards) scattered around central Christchurch, with the main one discovered near here in the 1850s.
By the time the English built the "Wakefield settlement" of Christchurch, the Waitaha were gone and Ngai Tahu were living further out towards what is present-day Papanui and Kaiapoi, but they did frequent Okataro for fishing and hunting. Mid 19th century, this area sprang to life as 'Market Square', Ngai Tahu folk bringing their goods directly here via Papanui Road, the diagonal connection named 'Whatley Road' with Colombo street running straight through Market Square. A sturdy iron bridge was put up in the 1860s and remains in use to this day. The settlers built their first Post Office, a prison, and other commercial buildings here, while the open space hosted trade fairs, market days and other events, until the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria became a catalyst for change.
The 1897 Jubilee saw the road re-named Victoria Street, the square re-named Victoria Square, and gentrification of the market square was underway. The Post Office moved to new premises Cathedral Square. A bronze Queen Victoria Statue, with the dual purpose of acting as a memorial to the Boer War, arrived in 1903, though it needed two unveiling ceremonies as five of the six panels to be affixed were a year late. The 38 Tonne Bowker Fountain, another gift to the city, opened in 1931.
In 1932 a large Carrara marble statue of the explorer James Cook was added to the square, the work of William Trethewey, and an unlikely gift to the city from a bookmaker named Mr Barnett.

The next phase of change for Victoria Square was in the late 1980s when permission was granted for a large new triangular shaped hotel, the Park Royal, to be placed 'smack bang' in the northwest corner of the historic square. The uproar from citizens was deafening, almost as if they had no idea the current square had already evolved from a pa and food gathering ground. Most of the controversy that spawned screeds of letters to the editor of The Press was about the proposed closure of Victoria Street through the square, creating a pedestrian landscape.

The plans went ahead. The landscaping of the square improved access to the Christchurch Town Hall, moved both statues to improved positions, created a grand garden entrance for the new hotel, and highlighted the historic cast iron bridge, with resounding success. The beginning of pedestrian-friendly urban design in New Zealand and the presence of the new hotel contributed to the garden city's social set and catered for increasing numbers of international tourists to the garden city.
Treaty of Waitangi celebrations in 1990 brought a third statue, this time a Totara Pou called "Te Ahi Kaa" (the home fires) by Riki Manuel.
The cogs of change began to whirr yet again following the 2011 earthquakes, under the auspices of Okataro Limited (the development authority taking it's name from the original Waitaha name for the Avon River). But proposals for change stopped dead at Victoria Square, the people making it known the square had already reached its zenith; they liked it the way it was. Redevelopment plans became more like reinstatement plans, the landscaping successes of the 1980s largely respected in the tidied-up square which, with statues restored and the addition of several thousand new pavers, was opened in March 2018.

Image Credits: Te Papa Victoria Square from Colombo Street Bridge, Christchurch, 1905, Christchurch, by Muir & Moodie studio. Purchased 1998 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. Te Papa (PS.002117/02)