Isaac House, Christchurch

Isaac House, previously also known as the Cook & Ross Building and the National Bank Building is a heritage-listed building opposite Victoria Square, Christchurch, on the south-western corner of Armagh and Colombo streets.

History
The land around Market Place (later Victoria Square) was some of the first sold in Christchurch. The original lot where Isaac House now stands was number TS 587, and was sold to the builder Isaac Luck in 1851. In 1859 a two-storey wooden building named The Apothecaries' Hall was constructed on the site by builder Thomas Tombs for the doctors Turnbull and Hilson, beginning nearly a century of the site being used for medical rooms. In 1926 the pharmacists Cook & Ross built the present-day Isaac House on the site. They occupied the ground floor, and rented the floors above to mostly dentists and surgeons. In 1962 the National Bank of New Zealand took over the ground floor, and over the following decades they gradually extended their offices into the upper floors, replacing the previous tenants.

The building was purchased in 1999 by Lady Diana Isaac, with the goal of conserving and restoring the building. She lived in a private apartment on the top floor. After the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the building was scheduled to be demolished to make way for the Convention Centre Precinct by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, but CERA later reversed the decision to use the land in 2014. It was purchased and restored by property investors Patrick Fontein and Paul Naylor.