Publications

Overview thematic history of Christchurch

The Christchurch City Contextual History Overview, an historic report which "slices" Christchurch up into the historic themes of Life in the City, The Built City, and Industry and Commerce has just been released for public viewing at the Christchurch City Library or on this site.

The report provides a broad overview and understanding of the city and its development in the last 150 years, which is pivotal for the future identifying and managing of heritage in Christchurch.

The Council Heritage Team commissioned the history project for a dual purpose:

• to provide an overview of Christchurch and a general sense of the settlement to develop a history of the place through themes and,
• to help the council review the existing City Plan heritage listings to identify any thematic gaps or potential items that should be added to the heritage inventory.

Thanks to the overview, the Council has already actioned many recommendations to add items to a potential heritage item list. The Heritage Team is now researching the recommendations before deciding whether they make the final heritage item list.

Read the Overview thematic history of Christchurch and the accompaning documents

These documents are PDFs. You will require the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view them.

• Complete document [20,891KB]

• Contents [210KB]
• Introduction [51KB]
• Theme I: Land and People [1,210KB]
• Theme II: Infrastructure [5,723KB]
• Theme III: The Built City [1,626KB]
• Theme IV: Industry and Commerce [4,075]
• Theme V: Governing and Administration [454KB]
• Theme VI: Life in the City I [4,388KB]
• Theme VII: Life in the City II [3,817KB]
• Annotated Bibliography [326KB]

• Map 001 [989KB]
• Map 002 [632KB]
• Map 003 [1,202KB]
• Map 003a [1,385KB]
• Map 004 [1,058KB]
• Map 005 [1,024KB]
• Map 006 [1,943KB]
• Map 007 [2,165KB]
• Map 008 [2,054KB]
• Map 009 [1,275KB]
• Map 009a [1,587KB]
• Map 9b [1,598KB]
• Map 010 [649KB]
• Map 010a [974KB]
• Map 011 [1,225KB]
• Map 012 [1,162KB]
• Map 013 [683KB]
• Map 014 [718KB]
• Map 015 [2,354KB]
• Map 016 [1,127KB]
• Map 017 [623KB]
• Map 018 [647KB]
• Map 019 [909KB]
• Map 020 [1,917KB]
• Map 021 [2,203KB]
• Map 022 [1,428KB]
• Map 023 [1,970KB]
• Map 024 [594KB]
• Map 024a [1,047KB]
• Map 025 [1,983KB]