Heritage and Leisure Buildings Suffer in Christchurch Quake

The weekend's major earthquake on New Zealand's South Island has had a major effect on Christchurch's heritage and leisure.

Many of Christchurch's and Canterbury's character commercial buildings, which many regard as giving the city its soul, were badly hit and many of the region's smaller historic churches and grandest old homes have been devastated.

The historic Hororata and Home Bush homesteads in inland Canterbury, Ohinetahi homestead at Governor's Bay and Godley House, at Diamond Harbour were severely damaged. However, crucial investment in earthquake strengthening over recent years has saved some of Christchurch's most important older buildings.

Former Christchurch City councillor and current member of the Historic Places Trust Board Anna Crighton said the earthquake had been ''unbelievably destructive''.

''What broke my heart was to see the facade of the 1882 Oxford Terrace Baptist church, the pedament and tableture, just split like paper and I can't see how that is going to be restored.

''I worry for the heritage of the city because the whole character of the city - is articulated by those lovely little buildings as well as the big ones."

Council Environmental Policy and Approval Manager Steve McCarthy added "a large number of heritage buildings have suffered a variety of damage (and) we want to do is protect those buildings as much as we can.

"We've told people not to pull anything down even if it's only a character building.''

Christchurch Arts Centre director Ken Franklin said he expected to find a pile of rubble when he turned up at 5am but the damage was still extensive and would ''take a long time to address'' and be very expensive to fix.

Collapsed chimneys had damaged the Great Hall, the clock tower and the observatory, leaving Franklin to lament âwe've lost quite a significant filial piece of the northern gable and unfortunately the tower on the south-western corner has shifted substantially and I'm concerned that's quite vulnerable.

"The stuff where we have done earthquake strengthening has definitely held up better than the others."

One of the Canterbury oldest buildings, the Timeball Station built in Lyttelton in 1876, which was strengthened about five years ago, survived reasonably intact although a large section of chimney smashed through part of the roof. Some water damage was caused when the sprinklers went off.

The earthquake also forced the temporary closure of Christchurch International Airport. It reopened following an inspection of the main runway.

Vbase managed venues the Christchurch Convention Centre, Christchurch Town Hall for Performing Arts, AMI Stadium and CBS Canterbury Arena are closed pending engineering assessments.

Meanwhile, all Christchurch City Council leisure centres have been closed for the weekend and will remain closed until Monday morning, when staff will reassess the situation.

In residential areas, concrete swimming pools are reported to have been lifted out of the ground while in areas where water supplies have been cut, Police and Civil Defence suggested people use spa and swimming pool water "to wash yourself and your family."

25th January 2010 - AMI STADIUM UNVEILS SHOWPIECE DEANS STAND 

17th November 2009 - POSEIDON’S LAIR OPENS AT CHRISTCHURCH’S QEII PARK

1st December 2009 - CHRISTCHURCH POOLS GEAR UP FOR SUMMER

14th April 2009 - DEVELOPMENT PLANS FOR CHRISTCHURCH VENUES