Cathedral Square, Christchurch

Cathedral Square, or just “the Square” as it’s known locally, is considered the geographical heart of Christchurch. It’s where the city’s Anglican cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, is located. The city’s two main streets, Colombo and Worcester, are supposed to cross here, but in practice, they’ve both been blocked off or detoured around the Square itself. The Square was badly damaged in the February 2011 earthquake.

It was originally going to be called Ridley Square, after the Protestant martyr Nicholas Ridley. But in Edward Jollie’s 1850 plan, it was marked as Cathedral Square. Ridley’s fellow bishops, Cranmer and Latimer, have squares named after them not far from here. The choice of Ridley is one of Christchurch’s many references to Oxford, since Ridley was martyred there. Even though it’s called a “square,” its shape is actually a cruciform.

In the original 1850 survey of central Christchurch, Christ’s College and Christ Church Cathedral were planned to be built next to each other here, modeled on Christ Church, Oxford. But the area set aside for the college was too small. So, in 1853, Henry Sewell suggested moving the college to land reserved for the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. This was made official in October 1858 by a law called The Cathedral Square Ordinance. This law also allowed Colombo Street to go straight through the middle of the Square, and the cathedral was to be placed west of that road.

Christian churches are usually oriented towards the east to allow praying towards the east. So, Henry Harper, Christchurch's first Bishop, pushed to have the eastern side of Cathedral Square used for the pro-cathedral. That way, the main entrance would face Colombo Street, allowing for prayer towards the east. Another ordinance in 1859 formalized this change in the cathedral's placement.

Just before foundation work began in 1864, the alignment of Colombo Street through the Square was changed again, with a curve towards the west. The idea was to move the cathedral slightly further west, making its tower visible along Colombo Street from a distance. The city’s founder, John Robert Godley, had his statue unveiled on August 6, 1867, on a pedestal opposite the cathedral. It was the first public statue in New Zealand. The city's central post office was built alongside the Square in 1879.

The Square has been redesigned several times. In 1965, the road in front of the cathedral was closed, and in 1972, the road in front of the Post Office was closed. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Square underwent a major reconstruction with new tiling, which was criticized for glare in dry weather and being slippery when wet. In 2001, The Chalice was unveiled, a large modern sculpture in the form of an inverted cone, designed by Neil Dawson.

Before 2011, the Square was the city's main meeting place and a regular spot for street performers and speakers. The Wizard of New Zealand was a notable character here, along with others like the "Birdman" and the "Bible Lady." New designs for the Square were unveiled in 2017, proposing to remove roadways, add green space and waterways, and split it into five zones, but these plans lack funding and have been shelved.

Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre opened in 2021 as one of the city's anchor projects and the third new building in the Square since the earthquakes, after Tūranga and the Spark building. In 2022, plans to renovate “tatty” corners of the Square started, after delays since