Building Blocks

20 November 2023

Block by block, the town site of Canterbury College was constructed between 1876 and 1966. Without an overall plan, buildings tended to be added as necessity demanded, and funds allowed. The result is that each building has its own unique character and its own story to tell.

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In 1850 Bishop Selwyn had advised the Canterbury Association that “A full grown college cannot be exported at once; … Mark out a good extent of land, and put up a wooden building; people are very tolerant, and will call it ‘The College’; and why should they not, when even an infirmary for sick horses may enjoy that name?”

Thankfully, though Canterbury College started with just one modest laboratory, it did evolve into a full grown college. Block by block, the town site of Canterbury College between Hereford and Worcester Streets was constructed between 1876 and 1966. Without any precise overall plan for the development of the town site, buildings tended to be added as necessity demanded, and funds allowed. The result is that each building has its own unique character and its own story to tell.