Head for Heights: Steeple Balancing on Christchurch Cathedral, New Zealand, 1903

Aspiring to excellence...
(click image for a larger view)

"Much excitement was caused in Christchurch on Monday week, when a workman was seen on the top of scaffolding erected around the spire of the Cathedral. The man [Arthur James Watts, 1863-1956] was engaged in boring the hole in which the cross which surmounts the Cathedral is to be placed". The Weekly Press, 8 July 1903, p. 28. Christchurch City Library photo collection.

Earthquake damage to the Cathedral spire in 1888 and 1901.The 1901 damage is on the left, the earlier 1888 damage on the right. The Canterbury Times, 20 Nov. 1901, p. 38.

The original stone spire was damaged in three earthquakes. On 15 Dec. 1881, an earthquake lasting 45 seconds brought down some ornamental moulding. On 1 Sept. 1888, the top 7.8 metres of the spire collapsed as shown in the photograph above (right side view). A third quake on 16 Nov. 1901, shook loose the top 1.5 metres of stonework necessitating the repairs being completed by Mr. Watts and others in the top picture. The spire was remodelled in hardwood sheathed in metal to reduce the dangers associated with fractured and falling masonry.

The Cathedral under construction circa 1880 looking at the east arch from Worcester Street.

(click image for a larger view)

Christchurch - Past & Present #5 The Square Post Office

Views looking west across Cathedral Square, Christchurch, to the General Post Office. (Click on pictures for larger views).

The Post Office in 1906 (top) and a few years later in the 1910s (bottom). Note the steam tram in 1906 has given way to electric trams in the second view.

Built in the 1870s, in an Italian/Venetian Gothic style, the GPO housed not only the post office but other government departments when it opened in 1879. It later housed New Zealand's first telephone exchange. It now serves as the tourist Information and Visitor Centre.



The post office in a paved pedestrian mall Square in 2007. Starbucks has moved, where else, into the corner spot of the post office while Telecom NZ looms large over the old post office.

The modern monstrosity, lacking all grace and charm, dwarfing the old post office is the Telecom New Zealand building, a typical example of contemporary New Zealand corporate architecture when bottom lines trump aesthetics.

Christchurch - Past & Present #4 South from Cathedral Square

Looking south from Cathedral Square, from a spot close to front doors of the Cathedral... a century or so between views... (click on pics for larger view).

1906

circa 1910 and 2007

The Bank of New Zealand retains its location on the left corner, replacing its original building with a multiple storey structure. The United Service Hotel on the right corner was built in 1884-85, a fifth storey added in 1929 and was demolished 1990 to be replaced by the ANZ Bank building currently on the site. The trams were long gone, the last one running in 1954, but a few were brought back in 1995 as a lure for tourists on a short downtown circuit.

Southern view from Square, 2007 showing BNZ and ANZ buildings in wider view (top);
Restored tram streetcars (bottom), The Square, 2007.

Christchurch - Past & Present #1

Christchurch, on the east coast of the South Island, is this blogger's original home town. It has often been described as "The Garden City" and used to be referred to as the most English of cities outside England but that has been changing in recent decades.

These past & present views are of Worcester Street looking east from the bridge over the River Avon towards Cathedral Square where the English Gothic architecture of the cathedral helps explain the most English of English label. Rather ironically the older postcard view circa 1910 shows no tram lines (perhaps the photo was taken before the advent of trams in Chch) while the present (2007) view incorporates the very touristy tram that runs a circuit around the inner city.

To the left just over the bridge, lies the former Christchurch City Council chambers (1887-1924) which are now known as Our City O-tautahi. The Christchurch City Libraries website states that architect Samuel Hurst Seager introduced to Christchurch the eclectic blending of Gothic, Elizabethan and Dutch motifs. On the right far corner is the Clarendon Hotel. By 2007 only the facade has been preserved, as many older buildings failed to meet earthquake standards, with a new building erected inside the outer walls.

To the west on Worcester street, i.e. behind the photographer, lies the Canterbury Museum at the western head of the street on the edge of Hagley Park & the Botanical Gardens. It may be to these perennially popular places that the mother in the older view is taking her children.