Ilam, New Zealand

Ilam, a suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand, is about five kilometers west of the city center and is where the University of Canterbury is located. It’s right near State Highway 1 and Christchurch Airport, which makes transportation pretty handy, and it’s also close to the main retail area of Riccarton.

The suburb gets its name from the ancestral home of the Hon. John Watts-Russell, who was from Ilam Hall in Staffordshire, England. He settled in Canterbury in 1850 after arriving on a ship called Sir George Seymour, and he named his property Ilam.

The Ilam homestead has a bit of a story. In the 1950s, the rector of Canterbury College, Henry Rainsford Hulme, lived there. The homestead gained notoriety in 1954 because Hulme’s 16-year-old daughter, Juliet, was involved in the Parker–Hulme murder case. This place was also a major filming location for Peter Jackson’s movie about the murders, *Heavenly Creatures*. Since 1971, the homestead has been the University of Canterbury Staff Club.

Looking at the area, Ilam covers 3.37 square kilometers and has an estimated population of 10,730 as of June 2025. The population density is about 3,184 people per square kilometer.

There are a few schools here too. Ilam Primary School is right next to the University of Canterbury and uses its facilities; it has 359 students, many of whom are from overseas. Westburn School is a state coeducational primary school for years 1–8 with a roll of 431. Medbury School is a private primary school for boys, also years 1–8, and it has 371 students. The Canterbury Japanese Supplementary School also holds its classes at Ilam School.