Montreal Street Bridge and Boatsheds

Did you ever wonder what this area looked like before Hagley Park and all the modern developments?

Before the first European settlers arrived, Māori lived in the Ōtautahi/Christchurch area, using the rivers as transport and for fish and wetland birds. The river was called Ōtākaro by Māori. John Deans renamed it the Avon River in the 1840s. When Dr Alfred Charles Barker arrived in December 1850, he described the Avon as “everywhere bordered with a luxuriant growth of flax.” His 1860 photograph shows the river banks in that primitive condition.

The Montreal Street bridge was built in 1861, the first known development on the river bank here along Cambridge Terrace. It was a single-lane cart bridge, and it was a big help to Christchurch citizens who had previously crossed the river at the Victoria Street bridge. The Christchurch City Council was established in 1862 and started landscaping the river bank. In July, a 'planting committee' decided three lines of trees—Lombardy poplars, sycamore, blue gum, laburnum, pineaster firs, and weeping willows—would be planted along the southern bank between Montreal and Hereford streets. By January 1863, a government gardener was appointed to oversee more landscaping. The council also used a hard labour gang to maintain the river bank, especially to clear refuse that residents often discarded in hollows.

In 1870, the mayor proposed leveling the northern bank between the Montreal and Hereford street bridges to create a promenade. It’s not clear if this work was done then, but it might have been the start of the footpaths we see today.

By 1875, the landscape changed again. The timber piles of the original bridge rotted, so the council authorized a new Montreal Street bridge in September 1875. In the same year, William Aitken built the Montreal Street boatsheds here. He got permission from the city council on the condition he paid £5 ground rent annually and didn't charge more than a shilling an hour for boat use. J. McLean took over the boatsheds in 1882 and ran them into the 20th century. They survived a fire in 1919 but were completely destroyed by arson in 1929. Photographs from 1888 and the early 1920s show the boatsheds didn't change much, though the foliage around them got denser.

Archaeological finds from the river banks here included fragmented artifacts on the north bank. These might be rubbish or lost items from people using the area for recreation, or they could be from the city council trying to flatten the land by filling natural depressions. This maintenance happened in 1894 and 1908 to make the banks “better looking.” These artifacts were likely further fragmented by foot traffic and the installation of pedestrian pathways.