High Street, Christchurch, NZ. circa 1908. postcard.
More past than present, a view of High Street looking northwest towards "the bottleneck" in the distance, the intersection of Colombo, High, and Hereford streets, just south of the Square. Cashel street runs across the foot of this postcard circa 1908.
The correspondent helpfully names significant features of the view, including the motor bus. In most early twentieth century views of Christchurch, trams feature prominently.
Perhaps the bus was an early experiment that was found wanting when it came to mass transit so the electric tram prevailed until their departure in the 1950s. The tram, of course, made a re-appearance in the central city as a tourist gimmick in recent decades and part of the Cashel street mall is currently being ripped up to extend the overpriced ride round the few central city blocks it traverses.
For a present day view of the scene pop over to Canterbury Heritage where the two views are presented together. Thanks to Canty Heritage for putting up a current view; I've only a recent view 90 degrees to the left down Cashel St.
2 comments:
That could be any street in Melbourne suburbs - same delicious architecture, trams, width of the roads, etc.
Plus I wish I'd learnt to write with copperplate writing like that!
She clearly wanted to impress her pen-pal in Austin, Texas, not only with her penmanship, but how modern Chch was!
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