Addington, New Zealand

This area, Addington, is a suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand, located about 2.5 kilometers southwest of the city center. It's an inner-city suburb, so you'll find a mix of residential, retail, and light industrial properties here. Geographically, Addington is situated between Spreydon and Riccarton, with Blenheim Road forming the boundary to Riccarton. To the east is Sydenham and to the west is Middleton.

For the first decade after Christchurch was founded in 1850, this whole area was farmland. But in the early 1860s, the railway was surveyed through here, and that's when things started to change. Larger sections of land began to be subdivided, factories moved in, and wool and grain sheds opened. With that industry came residential development for the workers.

Development continued throughout the 19th century. The city's sale yards opened in 1874, and the railway workshops were moved to Addington in 1880. By the time the show grounds opened in 1887, Addington had become a really important part of Christchurch's industrial and social life. The Addington Prison was built in 1874 on Lincoln Road, designed by Benjamin Mountfort. That prison closed in 1999, but Mountfort's cell block and some of the perimeter walls are now a Heritage New Zealand Historic Place Category 2 and have been converted into a hostel.

The suburb itself was named after the country residence of Archbishop John Sumner, who was a key member of the Canterbury Association and is buried in St Mary's Church, Addington, in England.

Into the 20th century, the New Zealand Railways Department's Addington Workshops were located here until they closed in the 1990s. The historic concrete water-tower is the only thing left of those workshops, and it’s now the center point for the Tower Junction shopping complex. A newer Christchurch railway station opened here in Addington in 1994, replacing the old one on Moorhouse Avenue. This station mainly serves the TranzAlpine, which takes passengers on that 223-kilometer coast-to-coast journey from Christchurch to Greymouth.

Addington was also home to the oldest blending plant in the Southern Hemisphere, but it was demolished after being damaged in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. That demolition was a bit controversial because the plant had been slated to be carefully dismantled to save its Oregon timber, which was valued at over $600,000.

The suburb is divided into four statistical areas. Addington North is mostly industrial, with the Main South Line running through it. Addington West and Addington East are residential. Tower Junction has a shopping center, the Addington Racecourse, and light industrial premises, plus two rest homes, which gives it a higher median age for residents. The residential areas, Addington West and East, cover about 1.13 square kilometers and had an estimated population of 6,040 as of June 2025. In 2018, these areas had a population of 5,346, with 60.4% identifying as European/Pākehā and 41.0% born overseas.