Cathedral Square

Cathedral Square, named as such by the town's planners and founders long before the completion of the city's now damaged Gothic Revival Cathedral, has always been the heart of the Garden city. Anglicans started raising funds for a cathedral only eight years after the arrival of the first settlers’ ships. Built between 1864 and 1904 in the Gothic Revival style, the cathedral was designed by a London church architect, George Gilbert Scott. The most famous of Christchurch’s early architects, Benjamin Mountfort, elaborated on Scott’s plans. The cathedral was built from local stone, and beams of matai and totara, mainly from Banks Peninsula, supporting its slate roof.
In its early days the Christchurch Square - really a cross shape - was a place where soapbox orators could express their views and where people left horses and carts while they went about their business. More recently the Wizard and the Town Crier continued the tradition of oratory - the Wizard haranguing anyone who would argue with him, and the Crier with his bugle and parchment announcing the happenings of the day.The Square was a controversial part of the city: buses, the police kiosk, the kind of paving stones, the siting of modern sculpture, the Cathedral Visitors’ Centre and new buildings have all been topics for very lively discussion. Whatever your views, the Square at the heart of Christchurch offered much of interest.
Until the earthquakes.
The Cathedral design, complete with tower, generous lashings of stained glass and was by Sir George Gilbert Scott. Its completion was supervised by Benjamin Mountfort. Until the 2011 earthquakes, it represented the very symbol of the English influence in Canterbury and the centre of New Zealand's Anglican Church. The initial Christchurch earthquake in September 2010 caused minor damage to the Cathedral, but the 6.3 earthquake on February 22nd 2011 caused extensive damage destroying the tower and much of the stone work.
On the day of the earthquake there was much speculation as to how many visitors to the Cathedral were crushed in it's interior, which fell in stages. Some say miraculously, there were none.
From 2011 until 2017, Anglicans, who also lost many other churches that day, sought a central place of worship, their needs partly fulfilled by a the 'Transitional' cardboard cathedral in nearby Latimer Square. In September 2017, the Anglican Synod voted in a 55/45% vote, to restore the original Cathedral in its entirety. This move, counter to a previous Supreme Court ruling that the Cathedral be demolished, effectively signaled the conclusion to the six year debate involving various proposals and arguments, which spread and raged amongst not just Anglicans, not just Cantabrians, but throughout New Zealand. The means by which this reinstatment will take place is the next chapter to be written though there have been promises that work would begin before Christmas. (2017)
Other features in this large and open paved square have lent life to the Square over the decades, the home of the big-hearted Christchurch City Mission, an outdoor chess board, sometime markets on different days of the week, the proximity of the Central Post Office (now closed) two fantastic movie theatres (now closed). Like many events in Christchurch the erection of the Chalice sculpture by Neil Dawson proved controversial. Christchurch Cenotaph and Terry Stringer's Risen Christ sculpture (1999) were unaffected by the quakes but moved away for safekeeping. The Square's importance was always reinforced by acting as the central stopping point for all Christchurch Buses and Trams, the change brought about with the opening of the new bus interchange in 2016 moved yet more life away from the square. Perhaps the revival will begin with the opening the new state of the art Library, while the Cathedral itself may take a decade or more to rebuild.

CHRISTCHURCH REBUILD TOUR

Christchurch Cathedral Marika Jones

Christchurch Cathedral Print by Glenn Jones

Image (1&2) Credit: Derek Smith and Maclean Barker Photographer