Christ Church Cathedral after the earthquakes

Cathedral Square was one of my favourite places in old pre-quake Christchurch. It was an eclectic place filled with interesting buildings, interesting shops, and interesting people. The architecture in and around the Square was a fascinating mishmash of building styles that captured the development of Christchurch from a settler town to modern city. From Victorian period Gothic stonework and Italianate brickwork, to Edwardian Baroque, perpendicular Gothic, and Italian High Renaissance, to Art Deco, to the concrete and glass office blocks, banks, and hotels of the mid to late 20th century.

The building that stood out the most, of course, was the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral.

Designed by English architect Sir George Gilbert Scott with significant amendments by prominent Christchurch architect Benjamin Mountfort, the Cathedral is a Category 1 Historic Place on the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga List and a scheduled Heritage Item on the Christchurch City Plan. Construction began in 1864 but was halted in 1865 due to finances. This early construction would see the laying of the foundations and little else. Construction would be picked up again under the direction of Montfort in 1873. It was completed in 1904 under Benjamin’s son, Cyril Mountford who had followed in his father’s footsteps to become an architect. Benjamin Mountford died in 1898, never having seen the completion of the building.

In mid 2011 I was hired by Katharine Watson (then owner of Underground Overground Archaeology Ltd, now one of the founders of the Christchurch Archaeology Project) as an archaeologist to help with recording the huge number of 19th century buildings to be demolished and subsurface archaeological sites that had the potential to be damaged during the rebuild of the city. In July 2011 I was given access the CBD red zone, and one of the first things I did was visit the Cathedral.

This post is simply a collection of photos of the Cathedral that I took over my time in the red zone.

CERA began reducing the CBD red zone in March 2011, starting with zone 1 between the Botanic Gardens and Cambridge Terrace. In April 2011 my girlfriend (now wife) and I took a walk through zone 1 and snapped a shot of the Cathedral from the Worcester Street bridge.

A steel frame had been added to the gable above the rose window. This was ancored into the stonework via steel rods. Unfortunately it would do little to stop the gable from collapsing.

In July 2011 I was given CBD red zone access to help with the archaeological recording of the CBD demolitions. I visited the Cathedral that month. The steel frame that had been attached the to the front of the building had largely failed to do much to stabalise the failing facade. About a third of it had collapsed, taking with it almost all of the rose window.

By the time of the deconsecration of the Cathedral in November 2011 the CERA compound had been moved from Manchester Street to the Square, to the east of the Cathedral. The archaeology team, which had grown to about 7 or 8 people, occupied one of the portacoms within the compound. I nipped out to view the deconsecration ceremony before heading out to another potential archaeological site. (Standing well back of course, so that my high vis, work boots, and helmet didn’t distract from all the nice suits).

By April 2012 more of the front gable had collapsed, taking with it the last portions of the rose window.

The remains of the tower were reduced to only a few metres to make the site safe. The removal of the north wall had left the structure weak and at risk of collapse.