Ironside House is listed as a Group 4 protected heritage building in the Christchurch
City Plan. Ironside House has historical and social significance due to its varied history and
association with leading members of Christchurch's medical fraternity. The house was
built in 1899 on the site of the Junction Hotel for Archibald Scott, an Insurance
Manager. During the early years of the first decade
Walter Fox, MB, surgeon is listed
in Wises Directory as occupant of the building. Fox had a varied medical career
having been a house surgeon, medical superintendent, military registrar and
consultant surgeon. In 1907 Sir Hugh Thomas Dyke Acland of the Acland family of
Peel Forest purchased the building as a townhouse. Born in 1874 Sir Hugh Acland
was a distinguished surgeon who served in a medical capacity in the South African
War, and World War I and II. From 1904 to 1929 he was Honorary Surgeon at the
Christchurch Public Hospital. Sir Hugh ran a surgery from
the property now known as Ironside House for many years. From the mid-1920s Dr
Arthur Charles Thomson operated a surgery from the property although he did not
purchase the building from Acland until 1944. Thomson had a large private practice
which included obstetrics and anaesthetics, especially for Sir Hugh Acland, but
devoted much of his time to those at the margins of medical practice, focusing on
venereal disease, illegitimacy and crime. Thomson sold the house in 1966 to the
Christchurch City Council who leased it to the Christchurch Teachers' College. The
house was used for lectures and tutorials until the college moved to Ilam at which
time it was converted to student accommodation. The house was named Ironside
House by the college after Miss A F Ironside, a lecturer in science and women's
warden of the college from 1927 until 1941. In 1982 Jan and Peter Clifford purchased
the property and restored the house. They opened a cookery school on the ground
floor. The property has been owned since 1999 by H & H Developments Ltd and
is currently under repair after the Christchurch earthquakes to restore the property to its former glory
