6 Dec 2017

Share this story

Christchurch City Council is giving a heritage incentive grant of up to $135,979 to help ensure the future of Cardowan - one of the city’s few remaining ‘genltemen’s estates’.

Cardowan was built in the 1860s at a time when Opawa was a desirable residential area and land was being subdivided into gentlemen’s estates for the city’s professional men.

Cardowan, at 64 Opawa Road.

Cardowan, at 64 Opawa Road, dates back to the 1860s.

It was originally home to David McKay, an immigration officer with the Canterbury Provincial Government who also administered the Charitable Aid Fund.

Unfortunately Mr McKay defaulted on the mortgage repayments on the house after he was charged with embezzlement, lost his job and his wife left him.

The house was bought by Georgiana Thomson, the widow of accountant William Thomson, who was a captain with the Canterbury Yeomanry Calvary, Provincial Auditor and Official Assignee at the time of his death in 1866.

She named the two-storey weatherboard house Cardowan after a suburb in Glasgow.

When Georgiana Thompson died she passed the house to her son, John. He had arrived in Canterbury as a child with his parents and spent his early years working on sheep stations before taking up his father’s profession.

In his retirement John Thomson took up walking long distances on the Port Hills and in 1931 he gifted 63 acres of land on the Port Hills (now known as Thomson Park) to the public.

Cardowan was badly damaged in the earthquakes and subsequently sold on an ‘as is, where is’ basis to TT Properties Ltd, who want to repair and restore the home and rejuvenate its large gardens.

TT Properties Ltd director Tangi Karati has applied to the Council for a Heritage Incentive Grant to help meet the cost of the work, which is estimated at close to $300,000. 

Today the Council’s Social, Community Development and Housing Committee agreed to give a grant of up to $135,979.

The grant is subject to a 20-year limited conservation covenant being placed on the property.

* Do you have any old photos of Cardowan or information about the people who have lived in the house over the years? The Council’s Heritage Team is helping Cardowan’s new owners compile a detailed history of the property and is on the hunt for any old photos or stories of Cardowan’s past. If you can help, please email the Heritage Team.