Victoria Square

Victoria Square is a public park located in central Christchurch, New Zealand. Originally known by European settlers as Market Place or Market Square, it was renamed to Victoria Square in 1903 in honour of Queen Victoria. It was one of the four squares included in the original plan of Christchurch when the city was laid out in 1850. Prior to European colonisation, a small Māori settlement was located here, on the bank of the Avon River / Ōtākaro (where the Christchurch Supreme Court was later built). The square was a centre of civic life in early Christchurch. It was the site of market days, fairs, and trade before its redevelopment in 1896–1897 into a park. It continued to be a venue for political and religious speeches until after World War II. The square was also the usual place for both military and civilian parades, and a key location for most royal visits to the city. For most of its history Victoria Street ran diagonally through the square, carrying trams and cars northwards out of the Central City. The square underwent major changes during the last part of the 20th century, with the construction of the Christchurch Town Hall on the northern side in the 1970s. Victoria Street was closed at Kilmore Street in the 1980s to enable the square to be transformed into a major urban green space. Following the February 2011 earthquake, Victoria Square was closed to the public as p

Square data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).