Christ Church Cathedral, Christchurch

Wow, so I'm standing here in Cathedral Square, looking at what's left of the Christ Church Cathedral. It's pretty wild to think this place was built between 1864 and 1904, and now it's in this state. It used to be the main Anglican cathedral here, the seat of the Bishop of Christchurch.

Earthquakes have really taken a toll on it. I read that the spire, especially, was damaged repeatedly over the years – 1881, 1888, 1901, 1922, and then again in 2010. But the big one was the February 2011 earthquake. That one completely destroyed the spire and the top of the tower. They actually demolished the lower part of the tower right after that to help with search and rescue. Then, the rest of the tower came down in March 2012. The west wall, with its rose window, also got hammered in June 2011 and then again in December of that year.

It's clear there's been a lot of debate about what to do with it. The Anglican Church initially wanted to demolish it completely and build something new, but a lot of people fought against that. There were even court cases. Eventually, in 2017, the Christchurch Diocesan Synod announced that the cathedral would be reinstated, thanks to grants and loans. So, by mid-2019, they started some early design and stabilization work. It's a long process, but it's good to know they're bringing it back.

Apparently, the community has been worshipping at what they call the Cardboard Cathedral since August 2013, which is pretty interesting. This whole project has a long history, too. The Canterbury Association originally wanted a city built around a cathedral and college, like Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. The first plans for this spot were made way back in 1850. Construction took 40 years, with a lot of stops and starts, mainly because of money problems.

The first bishop, Henry Harper, really pushed for the project when he arrived in 1856. He even made sure the cathedral entrance faced Colombo Street so people would pray towards the east, as is traditional. The original architect, George Gilbert Scott, was British and known for his Gothic Revival style, but he never actually came to Christchurch. He initially designed it to be timber for earthquake resistance, but the bishop insisted on stone. They finally laid the cornerstone in 1864, but then work stopped for eight years because they ran out of cash. It was basically an abandoned, overgrown square for a while. Even the novelist Anthony Trollope visited in 1872 and called the foundations a "huge record of failure." It wasn't until 1873, when Benjamin Mountfort took over as architect, that construction really got going again.