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Ten minutes' walk west from Cathedral Square along Worcester Street brings you to the Gothic revivalist Arts Centre , built in 1874 as the University of Canterbury and Christchurch Girls' and Boys' High Schools. The university decamped to suburban Ilam in 1975 and, after a period of uncertainty, the Arts Centre, with its restaurants, food stalls, shops and galleries, moved in. Today the leafy courtyards and grassy quadrangles make a great place to watch the world go by: it is especially active at weekends when the Market Square on the east side is turned over to a lively craft market , complete with buskers and musicians. Much of what's on sale is made in the Arts Centre's stores and workshops dotted throughout the building. The arts centre also houses a number of restaurants, a couple of cinemas and the Court Theatre ; the information centre (tel 03/366 0989, www.artscentre.org.nz ; daily 8.30am-5pm) contains the basement laboratory used for post-graduate research by Noble Prize winning atom-splitter, Ernest Rutherford. Join the 45-minute guided tours (Mon-Fri 11am; $5), led by the town crier, to learn more about the buildings, fashioned in volcanic "bluestone" and Oamaru limestone by Benjamin W. Mountfort, who also designed the Christchurch Museum, Christ's College and the Provincial Chambers.
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