City Mall, Christchurch
The Cashel Street part of City Mall looking west as seen from Colombo Street in 2009
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| Former name(s) | Cashel Street and High Street |
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| Maintained by | Christchurch City Council |
| Width | 20 m |
| Location | Christchurch Central City |
| Coordinates | 43°31′57.28″S 172°38′14.69″E / 43.5325778°S 172.6374139°ECoordinates: 43°31′57.28″S 172°38′14.69″E / 43.5325778°S 172.6374139°E |
| Construction | |
| Construction start | 1982 |
| Inauguration | 7 August 1982 |
City Mall is the main pedestrian mall in the central city of Christchurch, New Zealand, comprising two sections of Cashel Street plus the Bridge of Remembrance and one section of High Street. The Bridge of Remembrance was pedestrianised in 1976. The main mall was closed to traffic on 11 January 1982 and formally reopened as a pedestrian mall on 7 August, but it was not until 1992 that the entire mall was paved. The mall was redeveloped between 2006 and 2009, and track was installed for an expansion of the heritage tram network.
The September 2010 Canterbury earthquake caused damage to some buildings, but the Boxing Day aftershock, directly underneath the city, caused even more damage, including building failures. The 6.3 magnitude February 2011 Christchurch earthquake devastated the mall; the façades of many buildings collapsed and there were several fatalities. The centre of the city was subsequently closed to allow demolition work to proceed. Structures affected included most of the heritage buildings in the mall that are or were registered by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Part of City Mall, the section of Cashel Street from Oxford Terrace to Colombo Street, was the first part of the central city to open again, on Saturday, 29 October 2011, marked by a ceremony at which the Prime Minister John Key officiated.
City Mall is made up of Cashel Street between Cambridge Terrace up to its intersection with High Street and High Street from Cashel Street to its intersection with Hereford and Colombo Streets.
Cashel Street runs east-west. The portion of Cashel Street that makes up City Mall is approximately 400 metres (1,300 ft) long. The street is named after the bishopric of Cashel. At the time of naming by surveyor Edward Jollie and Joseph Thomas, the bishop was Robert Daly, an uncle of John Robert Godley, who is considered to be the founder of Canterbury.
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