nineteenth-century
The redevelopment of Canterbury Museum on Rolleston Avenue is revealing heritage facades that have not been seen for decades. The northern gable end of the 1877 Benjamin Mountfort building on Rolleston Avenue is now visible for the first time since it was covered up by the construction of the Centennial Memorial Wing between 1955 and 1958. Large excavators have peeled away a concrete wall, which stood just a couple of centimetres away from the historic stone façade. What they found underneath was the intact wall looking almost exactly as it did in the early 1950s. The heritage walls will be cleaned and revived so they can become a key feature of the new Museum entrance and atrium – viewed through a new glass curtain wall.
Images: The north end of (from left) the 1877, 1882 and original 1870 Mountfort buildings before the Centennial Wing was built in the mid-1950s.
Diggers carefully removed later material revealing the northern end of the nineteenth century Mountfort buildings. Courtesy Athfield Architects