CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL

CHRISTCHURCH, NZ       ANGLICAN

PAUL SCOTT

HISTORY

[Wikipedia]

 

ChristChurch Cathedral, also called Christ Church Cathedral and (rarely) Cathedral Church of Christ, is a deconsecrated Anglican cathedral in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It was built between 1864 and 1904 in the centre of the city, surrounded by Cathedral Square. It became the cathedral seat of the Bishop of Christchurch, who is in the New Zealand tikanga of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

Earthquakes have repeatedly damaged the building (mostly the spire): in 1881, 1888, 1901, 1922, and 2010. The February 2011 Christchurch earthquake destroyed the spire and the upper portion of the tower, and severely damaged the rest of the building. A lower portion of the tower was demolished immediately following the 2011 earthquake to facilitate search and rescue operations. The remainder of the tower was demolished in March 2012. The badly damaged West wall, which contained the rose window, partially collapsed in the June 2011 earthquake and suffered further damage in the December 2011 earthquake. The Anglican Church decided to demolish the building and replace it with a new structure, but various groups opposed the church’s intentions, with actions including taking a case to court. While the judgements were mostly in favour of the church, no further demolition occurred after the removal of the tower in early 2012. Government expressed its concern over the stalemate and appointed an independent negotiator and in September 2017, the Christchurch Diocesan Synod announced that ChristChurch Cathedral will be reinstated after promises of extra grants and loans from local and central government. By mid-2019 early design and stabilisation work had begun.

Since 15 August 2013 the Cathedral community has worshipped at the Cardboard Cathedral.

History
The origins of the Cathedral date back to the plans of the Canterbury Association, which aimed to build a city around a central cathedral and college in the Canterbury region, based on the English model of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. In the original survey of central Christchurch (known as the Black Map), undertaken in 1850, it was envisaged that the college and cathedral be built in Cathedral Square. The area set aside for the college was found to be insufficient, and Henry Sewell suggested in June 1853 to move it to land reserved for the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. This transaction was formalised through The Cathedral Square Ordinance 1858 passed by the Canterbury Provincial Council in October 1858. The ordinance allowed for Colombo Street to go through the middle of Cathedral Square at a legal width of 1.5 chains (99 ft; 30 m) with the Cathedral to the west.

Henry Harper, the first Bishop of Christchurch, arrived in 1856 and began to drive the cathedral project. Most Christian churches are oriented towards the east, and to comply with this convention, Harper lobbied to have the eastern side of Cathedral Square to be used. That way, the main entrance would face Colombo Street, resulting in praying towards the east in line with custom. The Cathedral Square Amendment Ordinance 1859, formalised this change.

In 1858 the project was approved by the diocese and a design was commissioned from George Gilbert Scott, a prolific British architect known for his Gothic Revival churches and public buildings (he later built St Pancras railway station in London and St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh). Scott never visited Christchurch, but handed over the oversight of the project to Robert Speechly. Scott had earlier designed a timber church, the plans for which arrived with the Reverend Thomas Jackson in 1851, but were never used.

Just before work on the foundations began, the alignment of Colombo Street through Cathedral Square was changed by introducing a curve towards the west, with the western side of the legal road, to place the Cathedral slightly further west, making its tower visible along Colombo Street from a distance.

Scott’s original design was for a Gothic-style cathedral, primarily constructed in timber. Bishop Harper, however, argued that the cathedral should be built from stone and by 1862 Scott’s revised plans, as forwarded to the bishop, showed an internal timber frame with a stone exterior. Continuing pressure for an all-stone church, and concerns over the lack of timber in Canterbury, led to Scott supplying alternative plans for a stone arcade and clerestory. These plans arrived in New Zealand in 1864.

The cornerstone was laid on 16 December 1864, but lack of money in the fledgling city saw construction halted in late 1865. At the start of the project, Christchurch was still a small town (its male population numbering only 450) and raising funds for construction proved to be difficult. Commentators of the time voiced their disappointment at the lack of progress – the novelist Anthony Trollope visited in 1872 and referred to the ‘vain foundations’ as a ‘huge record of failure’.

In 1873 a new resident architect, New Zealander Benjamin Mountfort, took over and construction began again. Mountfort adapted Scott’s design, adding tower balconies and the West porch and decorative details such as the font, pulpit and stained glass. The initial plans called for wooden construction, but were changed with the discovery of a source of good quality stone locally. Banks Peninsula totara and matai timber were used for the roof supports.

The nave, 100 foot (30 m) long, and tower were consecrated on 1 November 1881. When Mountfort died in 1898, his son, Cyril Mountfort (1852-1920), took over as supervising architect and oversaw the completion of the chancel, transepts and apse, all of which were finished by 1904. The Christchurch Beautifying Society planted two plane trees to the south in 1898.

The Rhodes family, who arrived in Canterbury before the First Four Ships, provided funds for the tower and spire. Robert Heaton Rhodes built the tower in memory of his brother George and the spire was added by George’s children. The family purchased eight bells and a memorial window and paid for renovations as required. In May 2012, the Rhodes memorial window depicting St John the Evangelist was recovered from the North wall.

The spire reached to 63 metres (207 ft) above Cathedral Square. Public access provided for a good viewpoint over the centre of the city, but the spire had been damaged by earthquakes on four occasions. The tower originally contained a peal of ten bells, cast by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough, and hung in 1881. The original bells were replaced in 1978 by 13 new bells, also cast at Taylors.

In 1894, Elizabeth, the widow of Alfred Richard Creyke, arranged for the Western porch to be built in his memory. On the South side of the nave there is a Watts-Russell Memorial Window in memory of her first husband.

The Cathedral underwent major renovations during 2006 and 2007, including the replacement of the original roof slates.

Earthquakes
The Canterbury region has experienced many earthquakes and, like many buildings in Christchurch, the Cathedral has suffered earthquake damage.

1881 A stone was dislodged from the finial cap of the spire, immediately below the terminal cross, within a month of the Cathedral’s consecration.

1888 Approximately 8 metres of stonework fell from the top of the spire as a result of the 1 September 1888 North Canterbury earthquake. The stone spire was replaced.

1901 The top of the spire fell again as a result of the 16 November 1901 Cheviot earthquake. It was replaced with a more resilient structure of Australian hardwood sheathed with weathered copper sheeting, with an internal mass damper. The repairs were funded by the Rhodes family.

1922 One of the stone crosses fell during the 25 December 1922 Motunau earthquake.

2010 The 4 September 2010 Canterbury earthquake caused some superficial damage and the Cathedral was closed for engineering inspections until 22 September 2010, when it was deemed safe to reopen. Further damage was sustained in the ‘Boxing Day Aftershock’ on 26 December.

2011 February The 6.3-magnitude earthquake on 22 February 2011 left the Cathedral damaged and several surrounding buildings in ruins. The spire was completely destroyed, leaving only the lower half of the tower standing. While the walls and roof remained mostly intact, the gable of the West front sustained damage and the roof over the Western section of the North aisle, nearest the tower, collapsed from falling tower debris. Further inspections showed that the pillars supporting the building were severely damaged and investigations of damage to the foundations will determine whether the Cathedral can be rebuilt on the site. Preliminary reports suggested that as many as 20 people had been in the tower at the time of its collapse, but a thorough examination by Urban Search and Rescue teams found no bodies.

2011 June The Cathedral suffered further damage on 13 June 2011 from the 6.4-magnitude June 2011 Christchurch earthquake with the rose window in the West wall falling in, and raised the question of ‘... whether the Cathedral needed to be deconsecrated and demolished’.

2011 December The Cathedral suffered further damage from the swarm of earthquakes on 23 December, the largest measuring 6.0 on the Richter magnitude scale, during which what remained of the rose window collapsed.