Aotearoa New Zealand’s houses are notoriously cold. Overseas visitors are bemused – or outraged – by the general absence of central heating and double-glazing (the latter is changing, the former not so much), by our propensity to heat just one room in a house and the general attitude that, really, you should just put another layer on and get over it – woolly jerseys were invented for a reason, right? (See this blog post from the Young Adventuress for the full rant, ahem, details). They’re not wrong. Our houses are cold. There’s not been a great deal of examination of the underlying reasons why this might be the case (the practical reasons are clear). One article I found during the research for this blog post noted that “it’s not customary for us [New Zealanders] to have central heating” (New Zealand Herald 2/5/2017) – custom (or tradition) is well-established as a generally terrible reason for doing or not doing something. It’s also not a particularly satisfactory explanation – central heating wasn’t custom in England or the USA either, until it became so. Anyway, the same article goes on to note that the cost of central (or more comprehensive) heating is also prohibitive for many (New Zealand Herald 2/5/2017) – particularly when you need not just to install a better heating system, but, to make it effective, double-glazing and insulation.
In spite of this preamble, I’m not here to offer an exploration of why our houses are so poorly heated. Instead, I have a surprise for you. Central heating! In a 19th century house! In Christchurch! And, while it may not have been original, it probably dated to c.1900 (when the house was added to substantially). Actually, it was a double surprise, because the house also had a cellar (very unusual in Christchurch, due to the exceptionally high water table in the 19th century).
The central heating unit found in the cellar under a Christchurch house. The cellar was constructed when the house was built, in the early 1860s. The central heating was added to the house later, possibly in c.1900.
The pipework associated with the central heating unit (the firebox and chimney are at extreme left.
In fact, this central heating unit was found in the cellar of a house that Christchurch residents are likely to be familiar with. Only the brick part of the house was demolished following the earthquakes, leaving the timber front half (designed by Samuel Hurst Seager) standing. This building is a Category I historic place, and its redevelopment later featured on Grand Designs NZ. The brick part of the house was just as interesting, to my mind. Built in the early 1860s for Dugald and Mary Macfarlane, it was a saltbox cottage in form. While this is a very basic and unassuming house form, the house itself was large (12 rooms – this would have made it large at any point in 19th century Christchurch, let alone the early 1860s) and brick – also fairly unusual for that time (and, also, throughout most of the 19th century in Christchurch). So, yes, it’s reasonable to assume it was built by someone wealthy. Dugald was a retired farmer, and he and Mary moved to Christchurch from rural Canterbury in the early 1860s, and Dugald established a wine and spirit business with their sons.
An advertisement for Dugald Macfarlane’s wine business. Note the reference to their cellars. Image: Lyttelton Times 17/9/1864: 6.
But what of this central heating unit? Well, it was located at one end of the cellar. The cellar itself was under the early 1860s part of the house. The central heating unit consisted of a firebox, set into large blocks of stone, with an opening for feeding it, and a chimney above, which also have a small metal-covered opening. The firebox was connected to metal pipes, which would have carried hot water around the house, and there would once have been a cistern to hold water too. The pipes visible at the time of recording ran under the c.1900 part of the house (and there was no evidence to suggest that pipes had run through the 1860s part), suggesting that this was the date the unit was installed. The angle and arrangement of the pipes suggests that they were connected to radiators (P. Petchey, pers. comm.). There was a decorative grate in the wooden floor above the cellar, which would presumably have allowed some heat to radiate up through the floorboards into the room above.
The decorative grate in the floor in the room above the cellar.
But here’s the most frustrating thing. The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted that the firebox has some words on it, and these are quite legible, reading “All Night / No 2”. There are some more words underneath this, but regrettably they’re indecipherable (and were at the time of recording). The frustrating aspect is that googling has turned up just one result for “All Night No 2”. Which seems almost impossible. It’s also not a particularly helpful result, although I guess it does confirm that I’m not making things up. To add to my frustrations, searching 19th and early 20th century newspapers for more information about the use of radiators in Christchurch also proved difficult – the term ‘radiator’ was used to describe standalone heaters, as well as what we might think of as radiators today.
Detail of the firebox, showing the name “All Night No 2”.
So I can’t actually tell you a great deal about this particular radiator, or the use of radiators in general in Christchurch, although I would note that institutions like the hospital installed them in the early 20th century and several theatres proudly advertised their use of them – clearly a good marketing strategy (Lyttelton Times 26/4/1909: 1, Press 3/4/1909: 13, 8/7/1911: 1). Talking with colleagues indicated that no one else had seen anything like this in 19th or early 20th century buildings. But! This is not the only example of central heating that I’ve come across in Canterbury. If you should venture to the site of the Mt Harper ice rink (and if you’re able to, I’d strongly encourage you to – it’s one of my all-time favourite archaeological sites), you will find a house built in the early 1930s, complete with central heating.
And the moral of this story? Well, there isn’t really one. It serves to prove that, yes, central heating was very unusual in 19th and early 20th century Christchurch, but it did exist. It’s frustrating not to be able to date when this particular system was installed, but if it was in c.1900, it was at the time that Samuel Hurst Seager made his substantial addition to the house, and may reflect a level of experimentation by the architect (I don’t have any information to suggest that Samuel Hurst Seager regularly installed central heating in his houses). But also, his wife – Hester, sister to the more famous Helen – was involved with the School of Domestic Instruction. Amongst other things, said school sought to have housewifery recognised as a profession, and thus improve the status of that role (yes, this – and Hester – are absolutely worth a blog post in their own right). I cannot help but feel that there could be a connection between professionalising the house and installing central heating. Yes, it’s a mighty long bow to draw, but the possibility feels at least worth thinking about.
Katharine Watson
References
Lyttelton Times. Available at: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers
Press. Available at: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers
Preston, Nikki, 2017. Cost and custom blamed for lack of central heating in NZ homes. New Zealand Herald, [online] 2 May. Available at: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/cost-and-custom-blamed-for-lack-of-central-heating-in-nz-homes/L6QK3GPZWTD3E7JZKN5RR7FH3Q/ [Accessed 18 April 2024].