One of Christchurch’s riverside gems has its sparkle back.

Contractors have finished restoration work on the Thomas Edmonds Band Rotunda, which was built in 1929 as a gift to the city from businessman and philanthropist Thomas Edmonds, of Sure to Rise baking powder and cookbook fame, to mark his 50 years of business in the city.

Sited on a picturesque spot on the banks of the Avon River, the rotunda has a distinctive copper dome and was built to provide a stage for outdoor brass band concerts, which were a popular form of entertainment in the late 1920s.