New Brighton has seen boom and bust - will the seaside suburb ever recapture its former glory?
Thursday, 31 December 2020
It was once a thriving seaside suburb, attracting tens of thousands of visitors every week. But in the four decades since losing its monopoly on Saturday shopping, New Brighton has fallen into a state of decline. LEE KENNY reports.
A stroll along New Brighton Mall reveals the area’s mixed fortunes, eliciting a wave of nostalgia tempered by a wistful sadness among those who know the area’s rich history.
On a good day, the busy cafes, colourful street art and faded grandeur give-off an air of Bohemian chic.
There’s a community feel, incredible sea views and spectacular sunrises.
A real estate agent would describe the coastal suburb as up-and-coming – but they have been saying that for a while now.
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If it’s an overcast day and the infamous easterly wind bites, it’s hard to look beyond the smashed windows, empty shops and boarded-up buildings.
What makes it worse, is that it wasn’t always this way.
It is well documented that New Brighton was once the only place in Canterbury – and perhaps the whole South Island – where shops were allowed to open on a Saturday.
What is less well-known is why.
Government legislation in the 1930s saw the introduction of the 40-hour week for factories and workshops.
Stores could open for half a day on Saturdays, but the shop assistants unions campaigned for the same working conditions.
Despite opposition from retailers, the Shops and Offices Amendment Act introduced a 40-hour week for retail staff and on December 7, 1945, Saturday shopping came to an end.
However, a clause in the law meant a magistrate could grant exemption, and the Christchurch City Council fixed the statutory closing-day for New Brighton as Wednesday – meaning shops could open on Saturdays.
In the years that followed, New Brighton boomed.
People flocked to the area for Saturday shopping and the big chain stores moved in to capitalise on the gold rush.
Hallensteins, Woolworths, Farmers and Glassons attracted Cantabrians from across the region, while local businesses, such as Dowsons Shoes and Shackel Meats, also thrived.
Alan Cockburn, who ran Gracie’s on Seaview Rd, said the streets were so busy that the council painted a white line down the centre of the pavement, to encourage people to stay on the left.
“The foot-traffic was so intense people couldn't get along the footpath.”
Gracie’s was always busy on a Saturday, he recalls.
At times, staff would be “shoulder-to-shoulder” behind the counter, serving customers.
In the 1970s, community events also created a buzz, with New Brighton Carnival, surf competitions and even the Mr Hairy Legs Contest drawing large crowds.
As the adults shopped, young people headed to the cafes to play arcade machines or to The Lido Cinema (previously The Roxy) to watch a movie.
Christchurch film aficionado Nick Paris, who grew up in nearby Burwood, remembers watching Saturday matinees there.
Paris opened Alice in Videoland in 1999 and is co-owner of Lumière Cinema, and says for a generation of children who grew-up with only one television channel, The Lido was “the perfect escape”.
“It was my local. You would get a thousand kids lining up to get in,” he says.
In the 1970s the closed day was changed from Wednesday to Monday and members of the New Brighton Business Association regularly travelled to Wellington to lobby for the area’s Saturday exemption to remain in place.
With crowds of shoppers and cars lining the streets, plans were mooted for a new purpose-built mall, with a pedestrian area closed to traffic.
The city council’s architects division finalised the designs in 1974 and by May 1977 construction began.
The revamp would modernise the area, with an indoor shopping centre, stylish lighting and brightly-coloured ceramic floors.
The mall was officially opened by Christchurch Mayor Sir Hamish Hay in February 1978, but within two years New Brighton’s fate would be sealed.
In 1980, the Shop Trading Hours Amendment Act allowed Saturday shopping across the country.
By that time, Christchurch had many malls – following the construction of the first in Riccarton Rd in 1965 – and the new legislation meant shoppers could stay in their suburbs on Saturdays.
As New Brighton lost its monopoly, the retailers left one-by-one.
Former Christchurch deputy mayor Carole Evans, who was a councillor for New Brighton from 1983 to 2004, says the area's decline happened slowly from 1980 onwards.
“It wasn't a sudden drop, it was gradual. It just sort of ate in, like a cancer,” she says.
“The shops changed hands and the big businesses moved out.
“The malls were opening, people weren't loyal to their suburban area any more, they would move from one mall to another.
“Once the shops started to move out, the council sort of neglected it. It was a battle to get anything done.”
In the decade that followed, “business dropped-off markedly and the centre […] spiralled into decline”, said one council report.
In a bid to recapture past glories, the $4 million pier was unveiled in 1997 and New Brighton Library moved to its new $4.5m seafront building in 1999.
The aim of projects was to be a catalyst for new development in the suburb, but the results were mixed and by 2014 a council report said the community expressed concern at the number of derelict buildings, “security, safety, arson, vandalism (and) graffiti”, in the mall area.
Further revitalisation has recently taken place.
In 2017 work began on the $8 million play area in Marine Pde, while the $24m He Puna Taimoana (the hot pools) opened in May last year, attracting more than 60,000 people in the first six months.
Dr Greg Clydesdale, an economist and recently retired Lincoln University lecturer, grew up not far from New Brighton.
He has been a strong critic of the expensive attempts to revitalise the area, once calling it “a black hole in which millions of dollars have been thrown with little effect”.
“It has to totally rebrand itself. They have wanted to have an anchor project to bring back the heyday, and that people will come and spill over to the shops,” he says.
“That's not going to happen, the world has moved on. This has got to be a boutique shopping area.”
The shopping area needs to be drastically reduced in size, with the 1970s mall area cleared to make way for new apartments and “beautified” public spaces, he says.
New Brighton councillor James Daniels says the area did go “downhill, slowly but surely”, but he remains optimistic things are changing for the better.
“In the last 10 years, things are starting to come back and there’s a lot more confidence in the business community and amongst residents. Things are on the up.”
People who live there love it, he says.
“In time, my children and my grandchildren will enjoy the uplift in property values because people will realise it is cool out here.
“There’s more retail and more investment coming out here. In 10 years’ time, I don't think we're going to recognise it. It will look so different, it'll be better.”