Ravenscar House Museum

Ravenscar House is a house museum donated to Christchurch by Jim and Susan Wakefield to showcase the Ravenscar Trust Collection of decorative art.

Jim and Susan Wakefield began acquiring paintings and decorative arts while living in Auckland in the late 1980s. Their first significant purchase was from the colonial era of New Zealand painting, Thomas Attwood’s 1890 work Smith Sound. Living alongside beautiful artworks brought the Wakefields great delight, and they were keen to share this with others. The couple planned to gift their house and its contents to the people of Christchurch, but it was damaged beyond repair in the February 2011 earthquake.

Work began on the new Ravenscar House in 2019 and in 2021, with construction complete, the building was handed over to Canterbury Museum to own and operate on behalf of the people of Christchurch. Ravenscar House Museum opened to the public on 8 November 2021.