Constructed in 1913-14 to the designs of prominent architect, Cecil Wood, the two storeyed timber St Margaret’s College (Former) building was the first purpose-built building erected by this prominent Anglican girls’ school. It has social, historical and architectural significance and is important as a surviving heritage building in Christchurch’s Cranmer Square area following the loss of other notable historic educational buildings following the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes.

St Margaret’s College was founded in 1910 when the Sisters of the Community of the Church from Kilburn in London took over a previous school that had been established by Miss Johanne Lohse in Riccarton in 1874. St Margaret’s College classes were first held at 28 Armagh Street but the success of the school soon required the erection of a larger building on a new site in 1913-14. The architect chosen was Cecil Wood, the builder was George Frost and the site was the corner of Chester Street and Cranmer Square. The original design was more or less rectangular in plan but insufficient funds meant only part, an L-shaped plan building, was first built. In order to provide the school with a temporary assembly hall, the ground floor classrooms were separated by sliding partitions.

Taking budgetary constraints and educational requirements into account, the architect Cecil Wood designed a well-crafted building that is largely Arts and Crafts in style. The two storeyed building has a weatherboard and board-and-batten exterior, corrugated iron hipped roof and wide overhanging eaves. The east elevation fronting Cranmer Square features a curved canopy above a now blocked-off centrally placed front door. The south elevation contains a recessed entrance porch and a flat roofed canopy supported by curved braces. A large sloping canopy creates a covered area to the entrances on the west elevation. The east and north elevations have regularly placed groups of grid-like top-hung casement windows, and the south and west elevations have pairs of tall multi-pane fixed and sash windows.

The building was extended in 1923 by the addition of a hall and a further four first floor classrooms. The hall, with an apse at one end, doubled as a chapel. In 1926, a further addition at the west end provided cloakrooms on the ground floor and a staffroom and sixth form room on the first floor. In 1931 the three north-facing rooms on the ground floor were converted to ‘open air’ classrooms with folding panel doors which were glazed in the top portion. The building served the school until it relocated to Merivale in 1959. In the decades that followed, the building was occupied by the Education Board, and then was taken over by the neighbouring Cathedral Grammar, the Anglican preparatory school, to serve as its junior school. Following major repairs, strengthening and interior alterations after the Canterbury Earthquakes of 2010-11, the building is the school’s specialist block, containing music, science and art departments.