Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings

Corner of Durham and Armagh Streets

About

Built in 1858, Christchurch's wooden and stone, Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings housed the first European-styled government in Canterbury, (one of ten New Zealand self-governing districts at that time), for eighteen years. In the early days of the colony, government fragmentation was necessary due to widely scattered settlements and communication difficulties. New Zealand's only purpose-built provincial council buildings to have survived to the present day, these striking buildings with long wooden corridors and stone floors, are a fine example of Victorian gothic-revival architecture. Today the building is the home of the Historic Places Trust.

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