City Mall, Christchurch

Did you know that this spot, what we call City Mall, is actually made up of two sections of Cashel Street, the Bridge of Remembrance, and one section of High Street? Some people just call it Cashel Mall. The Bridge of Remembrance was made pedestrian-only back in 1976. Then, the main part of the mall was closed to traffic on January 11, 1982, and officially reopened as a pedestrian mall on August 7th of that year. But it wasn't fully paved until 1992.

This whole area was redeveloped between 2006 and 2009, and they even put in tracks for the heritage tram network. You can see Cashel Street here runs east to west for about 400 meters, and High Street runs diagonally for about 150 meters. Cashel Street is named after a bishopric, and High Street used to be called Sumner Road.

The first traffic lights in the South Island were actually installed at the intersection of Cashel and Colombo Streets. That was on November 5, 1930, and they replaced officers who used to direct traffic.

The idea for a pedestrian mall here in Cashel and High Streets first came up in a redevelopment study in 1965. Wellington got their Cuba Mall in 1969, and its success encouraged other cities to go ahead with their own plans for pedestrianizing streets. The plans for City Mall were confirmed in 1979, and the City Architect's design was adopted in 1981. It cost half a million dollars to open the mall in 1982, and it took ten years and three stages for the whole area to be paved.

This area has seen a lot. The September 2010 Canterbury earthquake damaged some buildings, but the Boxing Day aftershock caused even more damage, including building failures. Then the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake devastated the mall. Many building facades collapsed, and there were fatalities. The city center was closed for demolition work. This section of Cashel Street, from Oxford Terrace to Colombo Street, was actually the first part of the central city to reopen after that, on October 29, 2011.