Victoria Street is a road in the

central city In urban planning, a core city, principal city metropolitan core, or central city, is the largest or most important city or cities of a metropolitan area. A core city is surrounded by smaller satellite cities, towns, and suburbs. A central city i ...

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, New Zealand. It runs from the intersection of Papanui Road and Bealey Avenue in the north-west, and terminates in the south-east at the corner of Kilmore and Durham Streets. One of the two diagonal roads that break the original grid plan (the other being High Street), it was very important in the development of Christchurch.

Geography

Victoria St runs for roughly from north-west to south-east towards the centre of Christchurch. It stops at Kilmore and Durham Streets, which form the boundary of Victoria Square. There is a slight deviation in direction at the intersection of Salisbury and Montreal Streets. Originally, the street began at the intersection of

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

and Armagh Streets and went through what is now Victoria Square, including a crossing of the Avon River on what is now known as the Hamish Hay Bridge.

History

Victoria Square is one of four squares located in the Christchurch Central City. It is located just north-west from its centre, Cathedral Square. The square was initially bisected by Whately Road (named after the

Archbishop of Dublin The Archbishop of Dublin is an archepiscopal title which takes its name after Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the other in the Church of Irelan ...

Richard Whately Richard Whately (1 February 1787 – 8 October 1863) was an English academic, rhetorician, logician, philosopher, economist, and theologian who also served as a reforming Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin. He was a leading Broad Churchman ...

, who was a member of the

Canterbury Association The Canterbury Association was formed in 1848 in England by members of parliament, peers, and Anglican church leaders, to establish a colony in New Zealand. The settlement was to be called Canterbury, with its capital to be known as Christchurch. ...

), later renamed Victoria Street, and this formed a major route to the north towards

Papanui Papanui is a major suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand. It is situated five kilometers to the northwest of the city centre. Papanui is a middle socio-economic area with a population of 3,645 consisting predominantly of Pākehā (NZ Eur ...

and beyond. Victoria Street was stopped in 1988 at Kilmore and Durham Streets under much public protest when the Parkroyal Hotel, the later

Crowne Plaza Crowne Plaza is a British multinational chain of full service, upscale hotels headquartered in the United Kingdom. It caters to business travelers and the meetings and conventions market. It forms part of the InterContinental Hotels Group family ...

, was built. When the Crowne Plaza was demolished in 2011/12 following the earthquakes, some were calling for the road to be restored; this included central city business leader

Paul Lonsdale Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

. This caused quite a storm of opposition, and soon after, the idea of restoring the road was dropped.

Notes

References

*{{cite book , last = Ansley , first = Bruce , title = Christchurch Heritage: A celebration of lost buildings & streetscapes , year = 2011 , publisher =

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, location = Auckland, New Zealand , isbn = 978-1-86979-863-5 Streets in Christchurch Christchurch Central City