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Christchurch: Quay and Church Street
This page follows Christchurch: Convent Walk, priory and grounds. I took most of the photos here in 2020, but I have included one from 2018 and some from 1996.
Boat moored in the quay with middle part of Hengistbury Head across the harbour in May 2020
Ferry alongside the quay in July 2020
In about 1994, the crew of this boat (or one like it) and I lifted my mother in her wheelchair from the quayside into the boat. Although she was unable to speak properly, I could tell that she enjoyed the trip down the harbour. We lifted her out in similar fashion onto the jetty by the café at the Mudeford sandbank. I wheeled her back to the nursing home via Hengistbury Head.
The ferry reverses out
Boats in the quay in June
I took this photo in June from about the same place as the preceding photo, but turned to the right.
Panning to the right in July…
Walking on the quay — literally — in early 1963
We still lived in London in 1963 and my grandparents had only just moved to Christchurch. I do not know that we had visited them there yet. This is a still from BBC digitized film showing people walking on the iced-over quay. (See under External link later on this page for the video.) To read about how we were saved by a London bus driver during that appalling winter, see London in About the author.
Old Mill Tea Rooms at the quay late last century (1996)
Like the Oasis Cafe pictured on an earlier page, I sat outside Old Mill Tea Rooms with my old mum on several occasions. At the time of writing (summer 2020) it is still operating, but with ‘social distancing’ markers because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Christchurch Sailing Club in October 2020
View from the marina housing in October 2020
Marina and surrounding housing in October 2020
Buzz Aldrin
Even astronauts retire here.
Swans at the quay in October 2020
Black swan (I assume)
Faina and swans by the yacht club at the quay in 2018
See also Faina at the quay.
Swan at the quay in October 2020
Houses at the quay in June 2020
Away from the quay. The hump in the road looks like a bridge, but it is just a hump. May 2020.
Dinosaur in the Red House Museum garden in July 2020
I previously imagined the dinosaurs all existed at about the same time before going extinct suddenly 65 million years ago. Not so — according to what I heard on a BBC Radio 4 science program. By the time of Tyrannosaurus rex, the huge brontosaurus had been extinct for so long that it was already just a fossil (collectively). Tyrannosaurus rex is closer in time to the iPhone than to the brontosaurus.
😯
T. Rex, April 2021
More dinosaurs
What do you call a one-eyed dinosaur? A dyathinkysaurus.
😀
Reflections in Soho cafe windows in Church Street
Church Street in May 2020
Around the curve in the preceding photo — and a quarter century back in time…
Roberts, Church Street, in 1996
When I was a youngster Robert’s was one of four or five shops in Christchurch that sold plastic model kits. In 2020 it is either another realtor (estate agent), travel agent, or ladies’ clothes shop (I forget which).
Roberta, Church Street, in 1996
Raisa in a dress from Roberta in 2014
On the end of the row — the north end of Church St — was Roberts’ almost-namesake Roberta. When I went past that window with my mother in her wheelchair, we always stopped to laugh at the outrageous price labels. I never imagined that one day I would buy a dress in that shop while being filmed for a documentary about life-size dolls. (See War to end all wars part 2 for this photo in context.)
Tom’s Cafe on the corner of Church Street and Bridge Street in May 2020
Roberta relocated to Bournemouth in 2019 to be replaced by Tom’s, which soon closed…
No. 1
…to re-open in October as No. 1.
Although this photo appears on an earlier page, it is repeated here for completeness. Looking to the left from the same camera position as the preceding photo, again late last century…
High Street looking north from Church Street in 1996
The Oxfam premises are now (in 2020) occupied by a mobile phone store. Courts carpet store is now a large cafe-bar. Bookends book store, next along from Courts, had just moved from its much smaller premises in Church Street. Bookends is still in its new location.
This topic continues in Christchurch: Purewell and Somerford.
External link
The big freeze of 1963 remembered video on BBC web site from which the frozen quay screenshot is taken
Brave Guys and Beautiful Dolls 