Glasgow's special link to Christchurch: Springburn Winter Gardens and Cuningham House

In October, the Glasgow Times wrote about ambitious £8.1 million plans to transform Springburn Winter Gardens into a thriving community asset.

And after the story went to print, we were contacted by a reader in Christchurch with the fascinating story of the city’s Winter Garden.

Cuningham House, the glasshouse in Christchurch's Botanic Gardens, is a replica of ours in Glasgow - and both are to undergo renovations.

While Springburn Winter Gardens was allowed to fall into disrepair and has lain derelict since 1983, Christchurch has nurtured its Winter Garden.

The Springburn Winter Gardens Trust, as we revealed in October, has developed multi-million plans to restore the derelict glasshouse for community use.

On the other side of the world, its twin was damaged in 2011 by a devastating earthquake and now it too will undergo renovations in the form of earthquake strengthening work.

Kate Russell, Manager Parks Programmes & Partnerships in Christchurch, contacted the Glasgow Times to tell us about the special link we have with her city.

She said: "This building is of huge importance to Christchurch because of its architectural history and there wouldn’t be too many Christchurch citizens who haven’t visited it at one time or another.

"We will be fundraising to get it refurbished and strengthened over the next couple of years.

"Of course, because of our earthquake in 2011, these historic buildings are all the more important to us all here in Christchurch and the preservation of the historic buildings we have left is a very high priority."

Cuningham House is the largest and oldest of Christchurch's Botanic Gardens display houses and was built in 1924.

It was paid for by a bequest from an Irish immigrant to New Zealand, a man named Cleverly Charles Cuningham, whose family took the brave step to emigrate to the other side of world in the 1856 when he was six years old.

The family was from County Antrim and were a comfortable middle class family who had made money in the linen trade.

When the family fortune was lost due to competition from the Manchester cotton trade, Mr Cuningham decided to start a new life with his family in New Zealand.

A few weeks before the sailing, Mr Cuningham fell from his horse and badly injured his leg.

The injury festered and became gangrenous and Cleverley's father died on the voyage, leaving his mother in a new and unfamiliar country with six children to support on her own.

At the age of just 12, Cleverly entered service with a firm of barristers and he rose to become a successful law clerk before retiring at the age of 39 having made his fortune in property.

Cleverley was an adventurer, spending his retirement travelling the world, visiting 97 countries and even going to the Arctic. He wrote travel pieces for newspapers, which are still available to read online.

When home in Christchurch he was a daily visitor to the Botanic Gardens.

But the gardens would never have received Cleverley's bequest except for a family rift.

Of the six Cuningham children, only one had children - Cleverley's nephew John. Cleverley was a devoted uncle and paid for John's private schooling and then sponsored him through law school.

Cleverley picked out a 'suitable' girl for John to marry... but John rejected the match and chose to marry for love.

A furious Cleverly cut John off and, when he died in 1915, he left £8000 to the Christchurch Domain Board, which was in charge of the Botanic Gardens.

His bequest was used to build the Winter Gardens - its name was later changed to Cuningham House - and this was exactly modelled on Springburn Winter Gardens... but was seen to be an improvement on Glasgow's design.

Local architectural firm Collins and Harman modelled the building on our Reid Winter Gardens at Springburn Park but, differing from the Glasgow original, it had a reinforced concrete structure.

Paul Sweeney, chairman of the Springburn Winter Gardens Trust, said: "In a year where the whole world has been challenged by the pandemic, and grounds for optimism have been scarce, it has been wonderful to learn about this almost forgotten connection that binds our two cities together, at opposite ends of the earth.

"The people of Christchurch have had to deal with more than their fair share of hardship and heartbreak in recent years, so it's uplifting to learn that the Cuningham Glass House will be a symbol of renewal for the city, just as we hope that the Springburn Winter Gardens restoration will soon be a similar beacon of hope for Glasgow as we emerge from such a horrible year.

"Let's hope that together we can plant the seeds for a better 2021, and continue to share our stories of progress as we bring both of these magnificent buildings back to their former glory."

While Glasgow's glasshouse was left to decay, in Christchurch their Botanic Gardens still holds some of the original plants hand picked 80 years ago by the then-curator of the gardens, a James Young.

Springburn Winter Gardens Trust has plans that would see the historic building turned into an event space and community asset with a woodlands kindergarten and studio, meeting and office space.

The building is currently still in the ownership of Glasgow City Council, but the Springburn Winter Gardens Trust hopes to undertake a community asset transfer of the building prior to restoration works starting.

Kate passed on greetings in Maori to readers of the Glasgow Times, sending best wishes from Christchurch for the Winter Gardens and for the city.

She added: "Please pass on to all your readers, our very best and aroha (love) from New Zealand for the Christmas season and our prayers for the UK to start the road out of the Covid-19 crisis.

"Kia kaha Glasgow! (stay strong!)"