Old Municipal Chambers
The Christchurch Old Municipal Chambers is a three-story Category 1 heritage building of exceptional national significance. It was designed by Samuel Hurst Seager and celebrated as the first Queen Anne-style building in New Zealand. Erected in 1886–1887 at the corner of Worcester Street and Oxford Terrace, it was the first purpose-built, permanent home for the Christchurch City Council.
The building served as the central hub for local government for nearly four decades. By 1924, the growing council outgrew the building and relocated to new premises on Manchester Street. Following the council’s departure, the building was leased to the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. During this era (1924-1987), a major fire broke out in the late 1920s, heavily damaging the roof and requiring the dramatic rescue of the building’s custodian and his family.
After the Chamber of Commerce left, the building served as the main Christchurch Information Centre (1987-2010). In 2002, it was refurbished and reopened as “Our City Ō-Tautahi”, a community space used for city exhibitions, meetings, and civic events.
The building was severely damaged during the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquakes. While it survived when many other historic civic buildings were destroyed, it suffered severe structural damage and remained tightly cordoned off for over a decade. In 2020, the Christchurch City Council leased the building to the City of Christchurch Trust for 50 years to facilitate an ambitious restoration project chaired by heritage building restorer Sam Rofe. A major stabilization and repair project brought the building up to modern code while meticulously preserving its historic fabric. The painstakingly restored building emerged from its scaffolding and wraps to reopen.
Today, it stands as a resilient cultural landmark, a Canterbury Architecture Awards Winner 2025, serving as commercial office space and housing the Frank Worsley Antarctic Research Library and the Rewi Alley Museum. The museum celebrates the remarkable life and global impact of Rewi Alley, a writer, humanitarian and a bridge-builder between New Zealand and China.
The Library
The library was the vision in 2023 of Sam Rofe and Bill Nye, owner of Adventure Books. Eminent Antarcticans, Colin Monteath and the late Arnold Heine had an earlier concept for a public reference library to complement Canterbury Museum and Canterbury University.
Following an agreement with the City Of Christchurch Trust (COCT) in April 2024, Dr Alan Cooper of California, donated the core collection to initiate the library, on the basis of an initial 20-year lease/licence arrangement at a nominal rental from the COCT. He has also donated a large number of duplicate volumes, to be sold over time to the benefit of the trust. An advisory group led by Emeritus Professor Peter Barrett started meeting in August 2024.
Dr. Cooper worked for the U.S. Geological Survey for over 50 years as Research Geoscientist and Emeritus Geoscientist. His focus has been on the geology and paleoclimate history of offshore Antarctica and north polar regions in the Bering Sea. As a researcher in SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research), he designed and led the Antarctic Seismic Data Library System for Cooperative Research under the Antarctic Treaty for 30 years. As Emeritus Geoscientist, his focus shifted to integrating cultural arts (as a violinist) with his Antarctic studies.
Frank Worsley
The name, Frank Worsley, which forms part of the library name, honours legendary polar ship’s captain, Frank Arthur Worsley, OBE, DSO and bar, Polar Medal, born Akaroa, New Zealand on 22 February 1872, died at Claygate, England on 1 February 1943.
After Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, captained by Lieutenant-Commander Frank Worsley RNR sank in the sea-ice of the Weddell Sea in November 1915, Worsley was a key person in the subsequent survival of the party of 28 men, including navigating the ship’s boat James Caird from Elephant Island to South Georgia on a perilous 800 nautical mile voyage through the stormiest oceans in the world.
[The following is substantially based on Shackleton’s Captain, A biography of Frank Worsley, (1998) by John Thomson.)
Frank attended Fendalton school, Christchurch, and was head boy and dux in 1887. His first voyage was on the NZ wool clipper, the Waiora, in 1888. He gained his foreign-going master’s certificate in June, 1900. The following year his first command was on Countess of Ranfurly, a NZ government schooner for the South Sea Islands’ trade, linking NZ dependencies including the Cook Islands. He was appointed Sub-Lieutenant, Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) in January 1902. In 1906 he travelled to England and undertook further training in the RNR. He rose to rank of Lieutenant-Commander in May 1914.
As captain of Endurance he took vital sightings during the drift off ship, on the ice, and after taking to the boats. He played a crucial part in charge of one of three ship’s boats, the Dudley Docker, for the seven days before reaching Elephant Island on 9 April 1916. His navigation on the James Caird voyage, from “… four far-from-ideal sightings in 15 days was close to faultless.” With Tom Crean and Sir Ernest Shackleton, Worsley crossed South Georgia to reach Stromness whaling station leading to the ultimate rescue of the entire Endurance company of 28 men.
Later in 1917, Worsley won his first DSO in action, when in command of a patrol boat he rammed a German submarine in the Irish Sea. He received a bar to the DSO following operation behind enemy lines when fighting the Bolsheviks in August 1919. In May 1920 he was awarded the OBE for services to Great Britain. He and Joseph Stenhouse (former captain of the Aurora during its drift in the Ross Sea) bought a small sailing vessel Annie, in which they sailed from Leith in Scotland to Reykjavik in Iceland on a hazardous voyage In November 1920.
Worsley was sailing master and hydrographer to the Quest expedition which left London on 18 September 1921. The ship sailed badly and the weather exacerbated her defects They put in to Madeira for a week and were laid up for a month at Rio de Janeiro. Instead of sailing to Cape Town, Shackleton pressed on to South Georgia, arriving at Grytviken on 4 January 1922. Shackleton died in his cabin at 2.50 a.m. on 5 January 1922. Two months later he was buried in the little cemetery on a hill overlooking Grytviken. In May 1922 the expedition members built a memorial cairn at the north head of King Edward Cove in his honour. After calling at Tristan Da Cunha, where Worsley surveyed the island, at St Helena, and Cape Town, the expedition ended in Britain.
In May 1923 Worsley commanded the freighter George Cochran from Europe up St Lawrence Seaway to Montreal. This was followed by Arctic exploration in The Island, a small vessel owned by Canadian, Grettir Algarsson.
In August 1926, he married Jean Cumming from Aberdeen. Until his death in 1943 they lived a precarious existence financially, assisted by the publication of his works, Shackleton’s Boat Journey and crossing South Georgia (1924), Under Sail in the Frozen North (1927), and First Voyage in a Square-Rigged ship, (1938.). He also undertook public lectures. The film South, supplemented by slides taken by Frank Hurley, and commentary written and delivered by Worsley was released in London in 1933. It was later re-issued with extracts added from Southward on the Quest, under the title Endurance.
in April 1938 he was with Stenhouse in a cruise venture on the four-masted schooner the Westwind. The first cruise with 72 passengers sailed from Southend Pier, London. Worsley was a director of a ship and yacht delivery business. The longest delivery was of a 1200-ton steamer the SS Harelda from Manchester to Hong Kong between November 1938 and February 1939. He undertook occasional special projects for the government such as testing cold-weather gear.
This was followed by treasure hunting on Cocos Island, off the coast of Costa Rica. He spent two years assisting a British company and twice sailed yachts there from Britain.
Worsley was aged 67 in 1939 at the start of World War 2. In August 1941 he subtracted five years from his true age and took command of a home trade vessel Dalriada, carrying out Admiralty work ‘wreck-busting’ including salvaging weapons from sunken vessels. He was replaced as Master in November 1941 following revelation of his true age. However, in April 1942 he was posted to a Royal Navy training establishment at Hove and in June 1942 was appointed ‘president additional for instructional duties’ at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
Soon after he was diagnosed suffering from lung cancer and he died 1 February 1943 at the home of the Bamford family at Claygate, his wonderful ‘country estate’.
Author John Thomson concludes: “New Zealand’s history of heroes is not complete without acknowledging Frank Arthur Worsley.”