Sep 10, 2008

1852 Lyttelton Revisited


A digital restoration of Sir Frederick Weld's 1852 watercolour of the Holy Trinity Anglican church at the south-east corner of Canterbury and Winchester Streets.

Begun in April, 1852 and completed that year, the view is of the West front of what was technically the pro-Cathedral of the province of Canterbury (the truncated design would appear to suggest ambitious intention for its later development). Built of brick and unseasoned timber to the design of the Christchurch Architect Benjamin Mountfort, the structurally unsound church was demolished in 1857 and the extant church was erected to the East of this building and a Vicarage was built on the site in 1879.

The North-easterly foreshortened view is up Canterbury Street from the vicinity of London Street. Interestingly the house in the lower Left corner may be the 1849 home of Captain Joseph Thomas, Chief Surveyor and Acting Agent of the Canterbury Association. This dwelling is possibly now the rear wing of the extant Grubb cottage

Weld's painting is now in the collection of the Canterbury Museum.

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