Clarendon Tower

The Clarendon Tower, the building that used to stand here, was a high-rise on Worcester Street at Oxford Terrace in the Christchurch Central City. It was built on the site of the former Clarendon Hotel, and the historic facade of the hotel was actually kept in the redevelopment. The New Zealand Historic Places Trust even protected it as a Category II heritage structure.

This spot has a long history. The first Clarendon Hotel, an early wooden building, was established in a private house right here at 78 Worcester Street, on the corner of Oxford Terrace. Guise Brittan, the land agent for the Canterbury Association, was the first person to occupy this site in 1851. He ran the Christchurch land office, which was diagonally opposite this intersection. Brittan sold his building in 1859 to Rowland Davis, who got a liquor license and enlarged the house, starting its history as a public house.

In 1866, a later owner, George Oram, renamed the hotel Clarendon, after the British foreign secretary at the time, the Earl of Clarendon. The hotel gained recognition in 1869 when the Duke of Edinburgh stayed here, granting Oram the title of 'Hotel Keeper by Appointment to His Royal Highness Prince Alfred the Duke of Edinburgh'. The Clarendon Hotel was often used for inquests into drownings because it was on the bank of the Avon River, and it was also the departure point for Cobb and Co coaches to the West Coast.

The original hotel building was eventually demolished. In 1902 or 1903, a new three-story hotel was built for the Crown Brewery Company, designed in the Renaissance Revival style by Joseph Clarkson Maddison. He was a notable architect in Christchurch, designing 14 hotels, the Old Government Building, and the buildings for the New Zealand International Exhibition in 1906. Many notable people stayed in that hotel, including the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869, Lee Kuan Yew, King George VI in 1948, Queen Elizabeth II in 1954, and the Queen Mother in 1958. The biggest crowd gathered when The Beatles stayed here during their 1964 tour.

In 1981, there was a proposal to demolish the hotel, which caused a lot of controversy. Eventually, the Christchurch City Council suggested keeping the facade with the redevelopment into an office high-rise. The hotel was demolished in 1986, but two-thirds of the Oxford Terrace facade and all of the Worcester Street facade were kept.

The 17-story, 67.7-meter-tall Clarendon Towers, designed by Warren and Mahoney, was built in 1986 and 1987. It was Christchurch's first example of "facadism." Local artist Bill Sutton described it as "a boy with his trousers around his ankles," a comment many agreed with, though others appreciated the historic facade's retention.

On June 24, 2005, the historic facade was registered by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust as a Category II historic place. It marks the site where Brittan, one of Christchurch's pioneering settlers, had his first home. It was one of the early hotels, established in 1859, and became one of the most notable hotels in Christchurch, hosting significant guests. It's an example of an important building designed by Maddison and is part of the heritage fabric of this area, alongside other notable buildings like the Public Trust Office Building and the second civic offices on Oxford Terrace, and the Avon Theatre and the Regent Theatre on Worcester Street. You can also see the Scott Statue on the riverbank in front of where the Clarendon Tower stood.

The high-rise was badly damaged by the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Internal stair