The Christchurch City Council is commissioning two poems as public art. Write a poem about Victoria Street and its heritage and it could end up being painted on the Street.
Victoria Street was once called Wadeley Road and was an after thought to the grid pattern- like High Street it runs diagonally. It ran from Armagh Street, through Victoria Square, to Bealey Avenue and was the main road to Papanui. Poet Denis Glover’s Caxton Press still operates from Victoria Street, although the heritage building was damaged in the quakes and later demolished. The area has a long history beginning with the tangata whenua, a role as a market area, Queen Victoria’s statue is there (but not in the original place), the Limes Hospital, the clock tower that was meant to be part of the Provincial Council Chamber building but was too heavy. In more recent years, the street has been home to some interesting boutiques from antique shops to hats, fish and chips to New York bagels.
Email your Victoria Street sonnet/haiku/epic to “>kiri.jarden@ccc.govt.nz by March 23 and you could win $1000.
Like everything else in this transitional city there is no guarantee that the poem will remain beyond the year’s end.
