Built as a private development in the early 1930s with 40 shops in Spanish Mission architectural style, it is one of the city's major tourist attractions.

Damaged in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the street and buildings reopened in April 2013, and the tram returned from November of that year.

The Colosseum was initially an ice skating rink, then used for a boot factory, became a taxi rank for some time and in 1908, it was Christchurch's first movie theatre.

[7][8] The plans had been drawn by Francis Willis, who had previously been employed by Christchurch City Council as their architect, but who had since 1924 been self-employed.

One of its features was a lighting system consisting of 400 lamps, and when this was first switch on for a trial on 24 March, hundreds of citizens went for a walk down the 100 metres (330 ft) long street.

[19] The opening happened during the depth of the Great Depression, and it was one of only a few larger projects undertaken in the South Island at the time.

[20][26] The roadway was transferred to Christchurch City Council, making it a public road, after World War II.

[27] This measure was in place for only eight years before the street was closed to automobile traffic in 1994 and turned into a pedestrian mall in preparation for the reintroduction of the Christchurch tram.

The buildings sustained damage during the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake[27] with structures "perform[ing] well" due to their design.

Repairs to the street and buildings were carried out by Naylor Love Construction Limited for NZ$3,000,000,[29] with Fulton Ross Team Architects providing the architectural inputs.

[30] New Regent Street was set to be reopened in December 2012, but this was delayed to February 2013, and then March,[31] and it finally did open on Saturday, 20 April 2013.

[36][33] Following the 2016 Valentine's Day earthquake, the five properties in New Regent Street owned by Helen Thacker were cordoned off due to risk of collapse of their façades, which stopped the tram from doing its traditional route through the pedestrian mall.

[37] The operator of the tramway, Michael Esposito from Welcome Aboard, claimed that the tram had so far brought 100,000 customers to New Regent Street during the 2015/16 summer.

[33] Tim Hunter, the chief executive of Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism, lamented that the inaction of one owner "will put us back in the world news as not being visitor friendly.