Sydenham () is an inner suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand, south of the city centre, on and around the city's main street, Colombo Street. It is a residential, retail and light industrial suburb.
History
thumb|left|Sydenham Heritage Church after demolition, with the Post Office in the background
While the Sydenham area had seen development from the earliest days of European settlement in Christchurch, it was originally split between the Heathcote and Spreydon road districts instead of being a locality of its own right. The name Sydenham originally referred only to "Sydenham House", a crockery and china shop in the area so named by its owner, Charles Prince, after the north-west Kent town of Sydenham, which is now a London suburb within the London Borough of Lewisham. At a meeting regarding the formation of a borough council for the area, brought on by growth in the area, surveyor and future mayor Charles Allison advocated for the area to be named Sydenham, after the shop. The name was agreed upon, and Sydenham Borough Council came into existence in 1876. The first council and its mayor, George Booth, were elected in 1877. The population of the borough around this time was between five and six thousand, a number which doubled by the end of the 19th century, making it among the largest boroughs in New Zealand at the time.
Sydenham quickly flourished as a suburb. By 1902, the population of the suburb had more than doubled since its formation, making it the largest borough in New Zealand.
The shopping precinct located on Colombo Street was badly affected by the 2010 and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes with many commercial buildings demolished. Approximately 35 sites lost buildings.
The Christchurch City Council produced a master plan in 2012 for redeveloping Sydenham after the earthquakes.
The business district located south of Moorhouse Avenue was nicknamed "SoMo" by Lonely Planet in 2012. This marketing campaign was part of the Sydenham master plan.
Geography
Sydenham is located near the centre of Christchurch, and is separated from the central city by the South Island Main Trunk Railway and Moorhouse Avenue. State Highway 76 runs through the middle of Sydenham before connecting to the Christchurch Southern Motorway in the neighbouring suburb of Spreydon to the west. A number of suburbs are located to the south of Sydenham at the base of the Port Hills, including Somerfield, Beckenham and Cashmere. To the east, Sydenham is separated from neighbouring St Martins by the Ōpāwaho / Heathcote River, and from Waltham by Waltham Road.
Demographics
Sydenham comprises four statistical areas. Sydenham Central is almost entirely commercial and light industry. Sydenham West, North and South are primarily residential.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Individual statistical areas
|-
!Name !! Area<br/>(km<sup>2</sup>) !! Population !! Density<br/>(per km<sup>2</sup>) || Households !! Median age !! Median<br/>income
|-
| Sydenham Central || style="text-align:right;"|1.21 || style="text-align:right;"|138 || style="text-align:right;"|114 || style="text-align:right;"|57 || 30.9 years || $42,100
|-
| Sydenham West || style="text-align:right;"|0.49 || style="text-align:right;"|1,320 || style="text-align:right;"|2,694 || style="text-align:right;"|645 || 42.7 years || $28,400
|-
| Sydenham North || style="text-align:right;"|0.48 || style="text-align:right;"|1,998 || style="text-align:right;"|4,162 || style="text-align:right;"|810 || 31.4 years || $33,300
|-
| Sydenham South || style="text-align:right;"|0.55 || style="text-align:right;"|2,787 || style="text-align:right;"|5,067 || style="text-align:right;"|1,128 || 34.1 years || $30,900
|-
! New Zealand !! !! !! !! !! 37.4 years !! style="text-align:left;"| $31,800
|}
Sydenham Central
Sydenham Central covers . It had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km<sup>2</sup>.