Montreal Street Bridge and Boatsheds

The Avon River, known to Māori as Ōtākaro, was described by Dr. Alfred Charles Barker in December 1850 as "everywhere bordered with a luxuriant growth of flax." His 1860 photograph shows the riverbanks in this primitive condition.

The first significant development here was the Montreal Street bridge, built in 1861. This single-lane cart bridge helped Christchurch citizens who previously had to cross at the Victoria Street bridge. After the Christchurch City Council was established in 1862, official landscaping began. In July, a planting committee decided that three lines of trees, including 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 for further landscaping, but the council often used a hard labor gang to maintain the riverbank, especially to clear refuse discarded by residents in the hollows.

In 1870, the mayor suggested leveling the northern bank between the Montreal and Hereford street bridges to create a promenade. While it's not clear if this work was done then, it might have been the start of the footpaths here today.

By 1875, the landscape changed again. The council had to authorize a new Montreal Street bridge because the original timber piles had rotted. That same year, William Aitken built the Montreal Street boatsheds here. The city council granted permission 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 themselves changed little, though the foliage around them grew denser.

Archaeological finds on the north bank were highly fragmented, likely from discarded rubbish, lost items from recreational use, or the council's efforts to fill in natural depressions to flatten the land. This maintenance occurred in 1894 and 1908 to "render the banks of the river better looking." These artifacts were probably further fragmented by foot traffic and the installation of pedestrian pathways.