Queen Elizabeth II on balcony.

January 1954

Photographs taken by my late father Pete Basire of the first visit by a Reigning British Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, to New Zealand, Christchurch 18 -22 January 1954. Contributor’s note:
In addition to the photo I’d previously entered into the 2019 photo hunt of the Royal Couple greeting crowds from the balcony of the Clarendon Hotel, also chosen as a postcard to advertise this years photo hunt. I am entering some of my father’s other photos of this. The Press reports from Papers Past indicate the Royal Couple made several appearances on the balcony during their visit, including three times on the evening they arrived, and the evening before they left.
This particular photo, a vertical shot, is interesting in that it shows the Worcester Street side of the (now earthquake damaged) Former Municipal Chambers, 159 Oxford Terrace and Worcester Street, which was designed in 1885 by Samuel Hurst Seager, a renowned NZ/Christchurch architect. This photo shows people watching from the Municipal Chambers windows and from the building’s balcony. And people watching from the roof of the (since demolished due to earthquake damage), Harley Chambers, 137 Cambridge Terrace and Worcester Street, in the background. No doubt there would have also been many people watching from it’s windows.

Creator: Peter Basire

Area: Central City / Cathedral Square South

Contributor: Barbara Newcombe

Source: Entry in the 2022 Christchurch City Libraries Photo Hunt

Source: View in canterburystories.nz

Reference ID: CCL-PH22-221

Uploaded by: CCL Photo Hunt

Copyright status: In copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License