Ilam, New Zealand


Ilam is a leafy suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand about five kilometres west of the city centre. It is the location of the University of Canterbury.
Located adjacent to State Highway 1 and the Christchurch International Airport, it is handily placed for transportation. It is also located close to the major retail area of Riccarton.
The suburb was named after the ancestral home of the Hon. John Charles Watts-Russell, who hailed from Ilam Hall in Staffordshire, England. He settled in Canterbury in 1850, arriving on and named his property Ilam. The Ilam homestead was in the 1950s inhabited by the rector of Canterbury College, Henry Rainsford Hulme. In 1954 the homestead gained notoriety as Hulme's 16-year-old daughter Juliet was involved in the Parker–Hulme murder case. The homestead was used as a major location for Peter Jackson's film about the murders, Heavenly Creatures. The homestead has been the University of Canterbury Staff Club since 1971.

Education

The Canterbury Japanese Supplementary School, a weekend Japanese school, holds its classes at the Ilam School in Ilam.