Avonside

The Avon River flows through the suburbs. The suburb was built on the fertile soil of its floodplain. In the old days in the territory of the modern suburb there was a very swampy area.

The suburb was named after the , which was built near the River Avon in 1855 ^{[2] [3]} . In 1869, local architect Benjamin Mountfort began designing several additions and extensions for this church. In 1898, he died and was buried in the church cemetery.

The borders of the Avonside Anglican Church parish were designated in 1859, and included the territories of the modern suburbs of Aranui, Burnwood, Lynwood, Marshland, New Brighton , North New Brighton, Parklands and Phillipstown. For some time, the territory of the parish included the north-eastern part of Christchurch, up to the .

Avonside High School is located in .

As a result of the earthquake on September 4, 2010, the Church of the Holy Trinity suffered considerable damage. During the earthquake, the suburbs suffered from soil liquefaction . In particular, the streets of Keller Street ( English Keller Street ), Bracken Street ( English Bracken Street ), Retreat Road ( English Retreat Road ), Koulisho Street ( English Cowlish Street ), which were covered with water and gray, suffered . silt. On Avonside Drive ( eng. Avonside Drive ) roads and buildings were destroyed. The power supply and water supply were interrupted, in some cases for several days. Serious damage was caused to the sewer system.

While the church of the Holy Trinity was under reconstruction, in February 2011 another earthquake occurred , as a result of which the church was destroyed. In the same 2011, the church was demolished ^[4] . This earthquake caused even greater damage to the infrastructure and buildings of Avonside. Soil dilution and flooding were more extensive than in September 2010. Roads and many buildings in the suburbs were destroyed. The power supply was interrupted for two to three weeks; in most buildings, the sewage system needed to be replaced or repaired. The army of New Zealand and many volunteer organizations (including the army of students and farmers) arrived in Christchurch to help the victims and eliminate the consequences of the earthquake. They mainly helped clean the streets of silt and debris. A local deputy, Brendon Burns ( Eng. Brendon Burns ), together with the leaders of local communities organized meetings with the population in Retreat Park at the intersection of Retreat Road ( Eng. Retreat Road ) and Patten Street ( Eng. Patten Street ) to inform about the sources food, drinking water and the progress of restoration work.

The earthquake in June 2011 again led to the dilution of soils and flooding, causing damage to buildings and infrastructure of the suburbs. After the earthquake, the New Zealand government declared the territory of Avonside (and many other Christchurch suburbs) the so-called “Red Zone”, in which many buildings must be demolished and rebuilt. Under the action of this decree, many streets in the suburbs, whose residents were obliged to vacate their homes by April 2013, and receive compensation from the government and insurance companies for their housing and land, fell. Part of the streets of the suburb were in the so-called "Green Zone", in which insurance companies undertook to repair or rebuild the damaged property. However, some sections (mainly Patten Street, Retreat Road and Koulisho Street) fell into the area between the two zones, called the "Orange Zone". A partial decision on the fate of land and real estate in this zone was made in February 2012. 213 land plots with real estate were assigned to the red zone, and their owners had to vacate their homes, 42 plots were assigned to the green zone ^[5] . By May 2012, a final decision was made on the orange zone of Christchurch ^[6] .

• Avonside Brewery (photo circa 1863) (English)
• Parish of the Anglican Church at Avonside (Eng.)
• Avonside Girls High School (Eng.)
• Profile of the suburb on the website of the Office of Statistics of New Zealand (English)