A Southern Blokes take on Christchurch Cathedral : Down She Comes!

The Cathedral in December 2011. 

Its been a media fiasco this week with the Cathedral owners deciding it needs to come down. I think good on the Bishop for being brave and strong. Right or wrong the decision it seems is hers to make and she after a lot of good advice.  (Link here to read about her). She's obviously a woman to respect! For the record I am not an Anglican and have no affiliation with the Cathedral beyond being a Cantab and always admiring its design, finish and the stonework when I visited.

How do you make any sense of what is a resonably emotive yet practical situation. In my mind it needs to have a bit of logic applied;

Some facts we would all agree on. (OK not all of us but any Southern bloke would!);

1.    We are all gutted it needs to come down (Cantabrians, Kiwi's, visitors, the Anglican Church, the parishoners, the council, architects, the cleaners who cleaned it, the cathedral cat, the choir, the wizard, the army of contractors who kept it in good nick......we're all gutted, disappointed and sad.....ok got it!)  that a really awesome iconic Cathedral is broken. We after all have grown up with it. It's on every post card ever sold. That damn earthquake it has broken a lot of kit!

2.    It is a blessing no one was killed in that Cathedral in Febuary of 2011. Trapped and hurt yes, but no one was killed. But they could have easily been, so some safer design or materials need to be considered to allow it to withstand future earthquakes. Its just got to happen!

The central city skyline has changed ince then. Taken in late 2011 from the estuary.

3.    I'm thinking that the church by necessity has to run like a business. It after all had a shop that sold tourist items, books and coffe and food added in recent years. That would be to try and make enough monney to cover maintenence, upkeep and repair of such  a beautiful building. Every time I went into the Cathedral I marvelled at the architecture, the stone work and the wood work. It was always impressive, and I'll bet it cost a lot and the costs kept increasing.

2.    It is really buggered! You don't have to be an Engineer to realise it would cost many millions to build something like it again, and more to try and fix it! Its a tough decision and one that right when your Lawyers, Accountants, Insurance company etc are advising that the logical thing cost wise is to replace it, the church naturally are really emotionally attached to it. So are everyone living in the city in some way so theres a lot of opinions. (Opinions are like armpits, (see some here on the NZ Herald site)  everyone has them and most of them stink!).  Further any decision made its going to analysed and commented on no matter what the decision was.

3.    According to reports in the media the council has thrown a lot of money into the Cathedral, no doubt doing the right thing and helping to maintain it and generate tourism, business, life in the central city etc. It seems however, that no matter what the agreement with the council, the insurance policy and the decision maker remained the Bishop....... and so we find ourselves in the current situation!

Personally I think the right decision has been made and I respect the Bishops call. Could she have handled it better to reduce the criticism by planning for the media interest, yes definately, but it was always going to be an emotive issue. Should she release some of the technical info that led to her decision, yes, but its a question of when. Wait until the demolision has occured would allow progress. Should materials be recycled and included in the new Cathedral, yes definately.

The cool thing is there is such an awesome opportunity to build something just as iconic and less prone to earthquakes. You wait until the new plans are announced whenever that might be! There will be a lot of armpits around then I'm telling you.......although I'm sure the Bishop will know a few new tricks and will be better prepared with the media, aligned with other key interested organisations (like the council).

I hope she will be just as upfront and strong. Leaders and organisations should be.

Want to read more or see some more Southern pictures? Link here;

See the year (2011) in photos

Photos of home: The beautiful south

The New Normal: Christchurch of a Good Day!

India: Viewed by a Southern Man working there

Pedro's Come Back!

Pedro's: Lamb shoulder to kill for!

Earthquake damaged buildings, death, injury and disruption of course take priority in the media. Other "collateral" damage caused by the central city closure is the loss of many hundreds of small businesses, taking with them iconic names, restaurants and the livelihoods of those who own and work in them.

Pedro's Spanish Restaurant was my favourite place to go out for dinner in the world.....bar none! despite trying hard not to I always had the same thing. Garlic prawns (starter) and Pedro's iconic "Lamb Shoulder" as the main. I have celebrated my graduation from university there, birthdays and have had many family celebrations in this restaurant over the years.

Pedro is such a great host always coming out to greet his customers and to say hi. He recognises you in the street and so do many of his staff/family. I, like so many was gutted when Pedro's was destroyed in the 22 Feb quake last year. Likewise so many of us felt for Pedro when he announced in a newspaper article that he had also lost a son in the CTV building collapse.

So when this article appeared in the paper this week I for one was stoked. I'm gald he has a grant to get the doors open again and I for one will be waiting outside when he opens!

Looking forward to seeing you again Pedro.

My previous blog about Pedro's:(Link here)  My Favourite spot