Early History of Christchurch
Christchurch and the wider area have a long history of Māori occupation. The vast network of wetlands and plains of Kā Pakihi Whakatekateka o Waitaha (Canterbury Plains) is inherently important to the history of its early occupation. The area was rich in food from the forest and waterways. Major awa (river) such as the Rakahuri (Ashley), Waimakariri, Pūharakekenui (Styx) and Rakaia were supplied from the mountain fed aquifers of Kā Tiritiri o te Moana (Southern Alps). Other spring-fed waterways such as the Ōtakaro (Avon) meandered throughout the landscape. The rivers teemed with tuna, kōkopu, kanakana and īnaka; the wetlands were a good supply of wading birds and fibres for weaving, food and medicine; with the forest supplying kererū, kokopa, tūī and other fauna as well as building materials. Ara tawhito (travelling routes) crossed over the landscape providing annual and seasonal pathways up and down and across the plains and in some cases skirting or traversing the swamps. Permanent pā sites and temporary kāinga were located within and around the Plains as Ngāi Tahu established and used the mahinga kai sites where they gathered and utilised natural resources from the network of springs, waterways, wetlands, grasslands and lowland podocarp forests that abounded along the rivers and estuaries.
Two main kāinga were located in the wider area near what later became central Christchurch. These are known as Ōtautahi, a settlement near the corner of Kilmore and Barbadoes Streets and Puari, a settlement located near the Canterbury Provincial Chambers. Prior to the city’s foundation the Market Place (now Victoria Square) was a traditional site for trading between local Māori, with a small fishing encampment located on the northern side close to the Colombo Street Bridge.
Most of the Canterbury region was purchased from Ngāi Tahu by the Crown in 1848. The Canterbury Association oversaw the systematic European settlement of Canterbury and surveyed the town of Christchurch and rural sections outside of the town boundary.
Victoria Square
Although European settlement occurred in the vicinity of Christchurch during the 1840s, most notably the Deans brothers at Riccarton from 1843, systematic settlement of the region only began in December 1850 with the arrival of the first contingent of Canterbury Association colonists. The land where the Christchurch Town Hall now stands formed part of the area designated as Market Place in the survey carried out by Captain Joseph Thomas and Edward Jollie for the Canterbury Association. The Market Place became a trading area for both Māori and Europeans. It appears in Edward Jollie’s Black Map 273 with the designation of Market Place, although sections 248 to 255, between the north side of Market Place and Kilmore Street and shown on Black Map 274 were later included in the overall site for the Town Hall. The site was bisected diagonally by both the River Avon and Whately Road (later Victoria Street), which is significant in the areas role as a travel route to and from the north of the city. The Avon River ran through the Market Place from southwest to northeast. The Papanui Bridge over the river was opened in March 1852, connecting the two sides of the Market Place and providing an important route to Papanui Bush, an essential source of timber for the emerging town. This was replaced in 1864 by the iron Victoria Bridge, which still stands.
From the city’s earliest development the Market Place was the site of public buildings. Christchurch’s first Post Office was constructed there in 1851. This was followed, in July 1852, by the first police station and lock-up, commencing the area’s long association with the administration of justice. Construction of the first Supreme Court in 1865 and of its stone replacement in 1869, on the west side of the square, consolidated this connection. At the far southwest corner of the square, along Armagh Street, the Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings (1857-65) added to this cluster of public and governmental buildings on the periphery of the space.
Sections on the north side of Market Square were quickly taken up in 1850 and soon contained many small trades’ premises facing southwards to Market Square. Dr James Irving also had two storey brick residence here, in front of which he planted four lime trees. Dr Irving’s house later became part of The Limes private hospital that opened in 1904.
The Market Place was renamed Victoria Square on 25 May 1903 to coincide with the unveiling of the statue of Queen Victoria, who had died in 1901. Francis Williamson’s bronze statue has stood in Victoria Square ever since, although it was relocated as part of the redesign of the square in 1988-89. As the twentieth century advanced the city’s commercial and administrative functions moved progressively southwards to Cathedral Square and Victoria Square evolved into an inner city park characterised by mature exotic trees with native planting along the river margin, an oasis of tranquillity within the bustle of the central city. This transformation was completed with the closure of Victoria Street between its intersections with Armagh and Durham Streets, through the construction of the Park Royal Hotel (later known as Crowne Plaza) and the comprehensive redesign of the space completed in 1989.
Christchurch’s previous town halls
Christchurch’s first town hall was a commercial rather than a civic venture. It was located on High Street between Cashel and Lichfield Streets. The architect was Benjamin Mountfort and it was constructed in timber in 1857. Architecturally it suggested a medieval guildhall, with its steeply pitched, open timber roof, oriel window and a balcony facing High Street. This building quickly proved to be too small and a second hall was constructed alongside it in 1863. This stone building was Romanesque in style and designed by Samuel Charles Farr. Its smaller timber neighbour continued to be used in conjunction with the new building until it sustained earthquake damage in 1868. It was further damaged by fire in April 1873 and was subsequently demolished. Although Mountfort’s timber hall was saved from the fire it was later dismantled to make way for new commercial buildings.
A design competition for a town hall to be located facing the Market Place was held in 1879. This was won by Joseph Maddison but the project was abandoned in 1882 because of ratepayer resistance. Another proposal for a town hall and municipal offices to be located on Cambridge Terrace between Colombo and Manchester Streets also foundered because of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. In 1921, following a referendum of ratepayers, the Christchurch City Council purchased the site on Manchester Street occupied by the remains of the Canterbury and Alexandra Halls which had been gutted by fire in 1917. These were originally constructed for the Canterbury Jubilee celebrations of 1900 and were designed by the architects Clarkson and Ballantyne in the Edwardian Baroque style. The façade of the Canterbury Hall was incorporated into the new Civic Offices that opened on 1 September 1924.
In 1923 the decision was taken to add a further building behind the surviving façade of the Alexandra Hall in order to address the need for a civic concert hall. This was designed by Dawe and Willis and opened as the Civic Theatre on 17 March 1928. In spite of its cramped foyer space, limited seating capacity, indifferent acoustics and inadequate backstage facilities, it served as the city’s principal venue for musical events until the completion of the new town hall in 1972. Because it was too small for large-scale events the King Edward Barracks (1905) on Cashel Street and later, Canterbury Court (1961), an exhibition pavilion at the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association’s Addington show grounds, were also used for concerts. The inadequacy of these makeshift venues, and the damage to civic pride caused by the fact that Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin all possessed far superior civic amenities, prompted a citizen-led initiative to provide Christchurch with a fitting performance venue. This began with an anonymous donation of £2 to the City Council on 19 August 1947, followed in February 1949 by £100 from the Christchurch Harmonic Society. By 1955 sufficient pressure had mounted for the council to establish a Town Hall Committee and from the 1957-8 financial year it began transferring £10,000 annually towards the project. The fragmented nature of local government was an inhibiting factor for large infrastructure projects funded by local government and the agreement between the neighbouring Waimairi, Riccarton, Paparua and Heathcote councils to contribute to the funding of a town hall was formalised in the Christchurch Town Hall Empowering Act 1968.
In order to resolve the question of the best site for the town hall complex the British architect and town planner, Professor Gordon Stephenson, was engaged as a consultant. After considering 13 possible sites he recommended what was known as the ‘Limes site’ (formerly the Limes private hospital) overlooking Victoria Square. This recommendation was adopted, to widespread approval, by the City Council on 9 October 1962. Part of the market place was gazetted as a town hall reserve in 1968.
The Christchurch Town Hall competition
With funds steadily accumulating and the question of the site resolved the Christchurch City Council was in the position to consider procuring a design. The method chosen was a two-stage competition open to all New Zealand-registered architects. The competition was advertised in July 1965 and by the time it closed on 31 January 1966 58 entries had been received. The jury, comprising architects Ronald Muston from Wellington (chairman), Aubrey de Lisle from Hamilton and Ted McCoy from Dunedin, plus two Christchurch City Councillors, Hamish Hay and George Griffiths, decided on a shortlist of five entries to advance to the second stage, which allowed for the initial designs to be further developed. The acoustic consultant was Harold Marshall, at that time a lecturer in acoustics in the School of Architecture at the University of Auckland. Warren and Mahoney were announced as the winner on 17 June 1966. The competition was the largest undertaking of its kind in New Zealand up to that date and following the announcement of the winner the full range of entries were exhibited in the Canterbury Society of Arts Gallery and a selection were published in the NZIA Journal in October 1966. There was a widespread consensus that Warren and Mahoney’s design was a worthy winner.
Context
As a building type the concert hall emerged as a distinct architectural form within Western culture during the first half of the nineteenth century. Prior to this time orchestral music had primarily been performed in aristocratic palaces or theatres, or in the small-scale concert rooms that emerged in London during the second half of the eighteenth century in response to the growing middle class audience for concert music. The emergence of concert halls with a capacity of around 1600 persons did not occur until the second half of the nineteenth century in the musical capitals of Europe with halls such as the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna (1870), the rebuilt Gewandhaus in Leipzig (1884) and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (1888). These halls were acoustically excellent and were distinguished by their elongated form with galleries along their side and end walls. This model was followed for Symphony Hall in Boston (1900), also recognised for its excellent acoustic qualities. The so-called ‘shoebox’ form was adopted for the principal town halls built in New Zealand in the first decades of the twentieth century. These were Joshua Charlesworth’s Wellington Town Hall (1904), Auckland’s Town Hall of 1911, designed by the Australian practice of J.J. and E.J. Clark, and the Dunedin Town Hall (1930), by Mandeno & Fraser. The traditional form of these auditoria was mirrored by the late Victorian and Edwardian classicism of their exteriors. These buildings looked back to established European models as well to the civic halls of Victorian Britain such as Leeds Town Hall (1853-58) and St George’s Hall, Liverpool (1854). The Christchurch Town Hall conclusively broke this mould.
During the decades of economic, social and cultural renewal that followed World War Two new concert halls were constructed in Europe, the United Kingdom and in North America. Some of these were reinterpretations in modern styles and materials of the established concert hall form derived from the nineteenth century, but others broke away from this formula in order to accommodate larger audiences and to achieve greater audience engagement with the performances taking place. Examples of such halls are the Royal Festival Hall in London (1951), Philharmonic Hall (now David Geffen Hall) at Lincoln Centre in New York City (1962) and the Berlin Philharmonie (1963). Both the London and New York auditoria were wider in relation to their length than the traditional ‘shoebox’ format and neither was successful acoustically. The Berlin hall, with its central performance area, terraced seating configuration and suspended sound reflectors, was more successful but was also unique and essentially inimitable. The Christchurch Town Hall was designed in the climate of acoustic uncertainty that existed as a result of the very public failure of these major international concert halls.
The Architecture of the Christchurch Town Hall
The brief for the Christchurch Town Hall competition required a concert hall, a smaller concert chamber, a banqueting hall, meeting rooms and a restaurant. As a second-stage development, the project was to include civic offices and a council chamber along with a new public library. The second stage was never carried out. The requirements for the main concert hall also stipulated: ‘To seat 2250 (on one or more levels). Flat floor – major portion sprung for dancing. Rear portion of main floor ramped or tiered. Sides can be tiered. Acoustics – good audience reception.’ As noted above, there was, in 1965, no longer an agreed formula for how good acoustics could be achieved.
Warren and Mahoney’s competition winning design organised the principal components of the brief in a formal, almost diagrammatic manner, with the main auditorium and concert halls positioned on a dominant east-west axis and sharing a central foyer space, and a secondary north-south axis on which were aligned the restaurant with banqueting hall (subsequently known as the Limes Room) above it. A large meeting room was located above the central foyer. The clarity of this plan means that the key components of the complex are entirely legible from the exterior and access to the two auditoria is clear and uninhibited. This is achieved through the unification of the circulation spaces within a single enveloping volume so that the mezzanine and upper level foyers and galleries that provide access to the interior of the main auditorium are visually connected. Paradoxically the spatial complexity that results is easy to navigate because of the underlying logic of the plan.
By the time they came to design the Christchurch Town Hall, Miles Warren and Maurice Mahoney had extensive experience in designing complex architectural programmes, most notably at Christchurch College (also known as College House) and they were confident in their use of the tectonic language of Brutalism, the architectural development within the Modern Movement that had emerged in Britain during the post war period and which emphasised clear expression of structure, directness in planning and the expressive use of utilitarian materials. Warren had gained first-hand experience of this modernist idiom while working for the Architectural Division of the London County Council between 1953-54 when the Roehampton Housing Estate was being designed.
The influence of Brutalism can be seen in the emphatic use of paired, cast in situ, reinforced concrete columns as the principal structural elements of the two auditoria, the foyer space and the Limes Room and restaurant wings. It is also manifested in the exterior cladding of pre-cast aggregate-faced panels for the enclosed spaces of the auditoria. The public circulation spaces as well as the restaurant and Limes Room have exterior walls of glass screened by copper covered brise-soleil or solar screens. Roofs are of copper. There is no applied colour on the exterior of the building. On the interior the use of Carrara marble on the floors of the ground floor foyers, and as protective surfaces on the lower levels of the fair-faced concrete columns of the interior spaces, creates an effect of austere luxury. This is added to by the use of rich red paint on the exterior walls of the main auditorium and the James Hay Theatre and the polished Meranti timber (Shorea pauciflora and related subspecies from Malaysia) used for handrails and balusters. The James Hay Theatre is named after prominent Christchurch businessman, local politician and philanthropist who, from 1958 onwards, was a driving force behind the town hall project.
The siting of the complex on the banks of the Avon River, with the restaurant and Limes Room cantilevered over the water, is one of the distinguishing architectural features of the complex, along with the terraced steps that lead from the level of the main structure down to the river’s edge adjacent to the Ferrier Fountain. These features anchor the building to it site in an outstanding example of urban design. The dominant architectural element of the complex is the elliptical Douglas Lilburn Auditorium (so named since 2004, in recognition of association with the site of the distinguished New Zealand composer of that name). Within the local context it was immediately recognised as ‘a space that will be quite a new experience for a New Zealand audience’. The principal architectural influences for this form were the Albert Hall in London, chosen by Warren because of the sense of audience engagement created by the circular space, and the layout of the La Scala opera house in Milan, with its tiers of boxes framed by radiating walls within the horseshoe shaped auditorium. The elliptical form was, acoustically, an unknown quantity, and acoustic reflectors were included in the competition design in the belief that these would be necessary for directing the sound emanating from the performers on stage to the audience.
The acoustic design of the auditorium was developed in close co-operation with Harold Marshall. As Marshall states:
'The design of the Christchurch Town Hall auditorium is inseparable from the discovery of the importance of lateral reflected sound in creating desirable acoustic qualities in concert halls. Indeed, the Christchurch project provided the problem statement, the hypothesis, the testing and its initial application in a major symphony hall, all in the space of five years, between 1967 and 1972.'
Marshall’s discovery of the importance of lateral sound reflections was a consequence of his appointment as acoustic advisor to the competition jury. Confronted with the need to recommend one of the five short-listed designs, he realised, after attending a performance in the Royal Festival Hall in London, that the limitation of that auditorium’s acoustic resulted from the lack of laterally reflected sound. Recognising the potential of the Warren and Mahoney design to remedy this deficiency, he advised the jury accordingly. Marshall’s discovery has now been recognised as one of the most important breakthroughs in the analysis of room acoustics, comparable to Wallace Sabine’s identification of the importance of reverberation time in the 1890s. Prior to Marshall’s discovery, reverberation time was the principal objective measure available for the assessment of concert hall acoustics.
Following his acoustic assessment of the Christchurch Town Hall competition, Marshall moved from the University of Southampton, where he had been completing his PhD, to the University of Western Australia to take up an academic position. During this interim period the British firm, Engineering Design Consultants, provided advice on the acoustic development of the design and as a result the volume of the auditorium was increased by raising the height of the walls in order to increase reverberation time within the space. Marshall resumed his advisory role once established at the University of Western Australia and, using an ex-NASA computer, with T.B. Ardagh, analysed the acoustic performance of the hall from multiple positions within the space. This was one of the first, if not the first, application of computer modelling for concert hall acoustic design. As a result the positioning and shape of the suspended sound reflectors were modified and sound absorbing materials were introduced to eliminate reflective ‘hot-spots’.
On completion in 1972, initial acoustic tests within the auditorium indicated that a high level of clarity had been achieved within an acoustic with a reverberation time in excess of two seconds, something previously considered unachievable, especially in an auditorium of this form. Use of the auditorium for musical performances following the opening in September 1972 indicated that it was an ideal space for the performance of symphonic music. This assessment received endorsement from an unimpeachable authority following a performance by the New York Philharmonic and their conductor emeritus, Leonard Bernstein, on 18 August 1974. Bernstein stated:
'What is wonderful about it is the warmth of it and the X-ray clarity of the sound. I was very impressed with that combination of vastness and intimacy that the architects have somehow achieved in the hall itself.'
Numerous musicians have confirmed Bernstein’s assessment since that time. It has been recognised internationally, along with the Tanglewood Music Shed (1959) and the Berlin Philharmonie (1962) as one of the three transitional buildings that pointed the way forward towards a new range of possibilities in concert hall design. Its design has stood the test of time, and is still seen by some as one of the world’s best concert halls.
Although the acoustic of the hall was excellent for the audience it was found that musicians on stage had difficulty hearing one another and in 1977 the circular acoustic ‘doughnut’, envisioned in the original design but omitted on account of cost, was positioned above the stage in order to solve this problem.
The Christchurch Town Hall turned out to be so successful that it inspired the Wellington City Council’s Michael Fowler Centre, a concert hall designed by the same architects, Warren and Mahoney. Designed in 1975, initially as a new town hall but subsequently reduced to a concert venue and completed in 1983, it incorporated refined acoustic design learned through the Christchurch Town Hall.
Concerts
The Christchurch Town Hall has served as the venue for music making across the spectrum of performance, from the annual massed concerts by the pupils of the Christchurch School of Instrumental Music to the Christchurch Schools Music Festivals. It also welcomed leading national and international performers including the New York Philharmonic, Russian State Symphony Orchestra and the Bolshoi Ballet and popular performers ranging from Carlos Santana to Crowded House, bringing a diversity of international cultural expression to the city. Important musical rituals, such as the annual Christmas performances of Handel’s oratorio, The Messiah, and Christmas carol concerts also take place there. Over many decades, performers and concert-goers have specifically spoken of their pride in the place for how thrilling the sound and visuals make them feel.
Community Use
The Christchurch Town Hall has long been the venue for graduation ceremonies of the University of Canterbury and the city’s other tertiary educational institutions, along with high school prize giving ceremonies. It was also an important venue for community educational events such as school science fairs and annual ‘Cantamath’ events. It has been used as the venue for the citizenship ceremonies. In the 1970s and 1980s charity fundraising Telethons occurred there. It has also served as a venue for balls, conferences and commemorative events, including the civic memorial service for former Prime Minister, Norman Kirk. The fact that it is now popularly recognised as Christchurch’s ‘public living room’ reflects its centrality to the social and cultural life of the city.
The Christchurch Earthquakes
As a result of the Christchurch earthquake of 22 February 2011 the Christchurch Town Hall suffered considerable damage due to liquefaction and lateral spread of the riverside site. This caused the auditorium to subside approximately 600mm on the south side and the south end of the Limes Room, adjacent to the Avon River, to rise and its north end to sink. The James Hay Theatre also suffered considerable damage on its south and east sides. The building’s future was under threat but public outcry led to a decision by the Christchurch City Council to repair, strengthen and restore the building in June 2015. Hawkins Construction then carried out a four year programme to bring the building up to 100% New Building Standard, to repair damage and upgrade building services. The site was consolidated by the insertion of 1098 jet-grout piles, the original 150mm thick floor slab was replaced by a new slab foundation varying in thickness from 700 to 900mm and the Limes Room wing was re-levelled. Thirty-four reinforced concrete columns in the foyer and Limes Room wing were reconstructed with increased reinforcing steel although their original dimensions and appearance were retained. The east wall of the fly tower and back of house facilities of the James Hay Theatre were also rebuilt.
The building was reopened with much community interest and celebration on 23 February 2019 although completion of the James Hay Theatre was delayed until May 2019 and the new Christchurch Symphony Orchestra (C.S.O.) building was not completed until August. For most people returning to the town hall after eight years the changes to the building were imperceptible. The most noticeable alteration was the addition of diagonal, steel, buckling-restrained braces to the east and west walls of the Limes Room wing. Acoustic testing of the Douglas Lilburn Auditorium prior to reopening indicated that its acoustic qualities were essentially unchanged.
