17.02.11. This Selwyn St, brick garage, tilted in the Sept 4 quake, would collapse in the Feb 22 quake
17.02.11. Blue tarped roof & quake damaged, brick wall, steel mesh fence cordoned, closed business, Selwyn St / Moorhouse Ave, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
Selwyn St: As Jake had flatted in a wooden 2 storey house, Selwyn St / Hagley Ave & as Luke had done picture framing work at The Silvan Cafe Gallery, Selwyn St / Brougham St, I wanted to see how Selwyn St had fared in the 4 Sept 2010, M7.1, Darfield Quake & 5 months of aftershocks: 1 storey, brick garage tilted, parapet fallen in the 04.09.10 Darfield Quake. Garage would collapse in the 22.02.11 Killer Quake. Near railway, 2 storey Dive & Ski World, brick parapets, gables gone, blue tarped, brick rubble in carpark, steel mesh fence cordoned. At railway, 4 storey business, roof brick gable gone, boarded. Brick wall would collapse in the 22.02.11 Killer Quake.
17.02.11. Quake damaged, brick wall, fallen parapet & gable, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
17.02.11. Selwyn St, brick bldg, by railway crossing, was boarded post Sept 4 quake. The brick wall would collapse in the Feb 22 quake
17.02.11. Selwyn St, brick bldg, boarded post Sept 4 quake. Brick wall would collapse in the Feb 22 quake
17.02.11. Dog statue by historic brick house, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
Disraeli St: Series of 8 rusty, iron statues, resembling cabbage trees with raised branches, ghosting into half cabbage tree, half human figures, with branches / arms raised, ending with a rusty, iron angel, half cabbage tree, half human, wearing a barbed wire halo, with raised cabbage tree branches / arms. Nearby rusty, iron sign: "Is man an ape or an angel?..."
17.02.11. Addington open drain behind rusty, iron statues, Disraeli St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
17.02.11. Rusty, iron statues, Disraeli St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
Selwyn St: Everybody's Butchery, 1 storey, damaged roof, cracked brick walls, next to Kidsfirst kindergarten. In Kidsfirst playground, orange, plastic, fence cordoned, wooden bracing propped Everybody's Butchery brick wall. 1 storey house, 2 quake trashed, brick chimneys.
17.02.11. Quake damaged, old, brick Everybody's Butchery, next to Kidsfirst kindergarten, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
17.02.11. Wood bracing, Everybody's Butchery, brick wall, 5 months post Sept 4 quake, Selwyn St, Kidsfirst kindergarten garden
17.02.11. Quake damaged, 2 brick chimneys, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
17.02.11. Addington Cemetery gate, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
17.02.11. HAZARD sign, Addington Cemetery gate, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
Selwyn St, Addington Cemetery: Vandalised, toppled headstones, gravestones damaged by Sept 4 Darfield Quake & Boxing Day Quake. DANGER. White & red, plastic tape wrapped around quake trashed tombstones. HAZARD. White, red warning signs hung at 3 cemetery entrances:
"Many of the headstones and monuments in this cemetery are unstable due to recent earthquakes.
Please proceed with caution when entering the cemetery."
17.02.11. Quake toppled tombstone, Addington Cemetery, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
17.02.11. Quake damaged, white, plastic taped tombstone, Addington Cemetery, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
Many graves had broken, sunken, concrete slabs; broken border concrete; broken, toppled, iron railings; broken, toppled, shifted headstones; broken, toppled, shifted monuments; overgrown shrubs, trees. What had quakes done to buried bodies?
Redeeming features: cut grass, laminated plastic sign stuck on the Council history, information board, asking for Friends for Addington Cemetery & Historic Cemeteries Conservation. More gravestones would be broken by the Feb 22 Killer Quake, so conservation would be needed.
17.02.11. Friends For Addington Cemetery sign, Addington Cemetery, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
17.02.11. Quake damaged tombstones, 1 white, plastic taped, Addington Cemetery, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
Addington Cemetery, history board:
"The Addington Cemetery was established in 1858. Although not the first cemetery in Christchurch, Addington was in fact the first 'Public' cemetery, 'being open to all persons of any religious community' and allowing the performance of any religious service 'not contrary to public decency.' The other major cemetery at Barbadoes St primarily provided for Anglican services, thus many of the more radical personalities who were not prepared to conform to Anglican services, opted for the Addington Cemetery..."
17.02.11. Quake damaged tombstones, Addington Cemetery, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
"The profits made from the purchasing of plots went towards the acquisition of sites of religious and educational purposes, the relief of the poor and provision of bursaries for the Christchurch High School (today known as Hagley High School)."
17.02.11. Quake damaged tombstones, Addington Cemetery, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
"The first burial took place in 1858, and these continued regularly up to the mid 1980s, with only a few burials since then. In the 1950s the St Andrew's Church trustees passed control over to the Christchurch City Council, who have maintained the cemetery as one of the city's recognised "green spaces.'"
17.02.11. Bronze plaque about early Christchurch drains, Addington Cemetery, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake. Many drains & sewers were trashed by Christchurch 2010-11 quakes
An Addington Cemetery's entrance, replica drain & bronze plaque:
"What a difference a drain makes!
Push the lever and look down to your right into a replica of our city's earliest brick drains.
In the 1880s Christchurch was the first NZ city to install these, reducing the plague of deadly diseases like typhoid.
Look around to see how the design of drainage today considers even more community values."
17.02.11. Quake damaged graves, Addington Cemetery, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake. During the Feb 22 quake, the left memorial angel would fall, gouging a grave
Ridiculous, as quake shaking & liquefaction caused damage to Christchurch drains, water pipes, sewage pipes. "Design" referred to open drains made of loose stones, which were hazardous rubbish traps. I'd nearly broken my neck, tripping over tussock grass, while staring at rubbish in the Disraeli St open drains.
17.02.11. Quake damaged tombstones, white, plastic taped, Addington Cemetery, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
Selwyn St: Five months post Sept 4 Darfield Quake, I saw only one new bldg development between Moorhouse Ave & Brougham St. There were few post quake repairs, no demolitions, no rebuilding of quake ghosted bldgs.
17.02.11. Quake damaged tombstones, white plastic taped, Addington Cemetery, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
Selwyn St / Brougham St: Quake damaged, 1-2 storeys, Silvan Cafe Gallery where Luke had worked post Sept 4 Darfield Quake. Brougham St, 1 storey, brick parapet rubble still on pavement, black plastic covered brick wall. Selwyn St, wood braced window, steel braced awning over pavement. (Bldg owner, John Boote was once our Halswell landlord). Next door, whiteware appliances shop, broken window.
Silvan Cafe Gallery would survive the Feb 22 Killer Quake, steel capping the 2 storey, brick parapet wall. Where there was no steel, the parapet would fall. Most Feb 22 Killer Quake cracks were inside, where the 2 old, brick bldgs joined. Post Feb 22 Killer Quake, the bldg would be red stickered, picture framing business closed.
Luke told me Silvan Cafe Gallery was haunted. The bldg was originally a pharmacy. The pharmacist had blown himself up in the basement while mixing chemicals. Luke said sometimes he'd felt a warm, happy presence in the basement while working there. Was the ghost telling him something?
2023. After many quakes, Silvan Cafe Gallery ghost would stand empty for over 10 years, an eyesore, scaffolding on the outside, no rebuild nor repairs. Post quakes, I would often see that ghost, as Luke would rent a nearby Redruth Ave house.
17.02.11. Quake damaged Silvan Cafe Gallery, Selwyn St / Brougham St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
17.02.11. Red stickered business door, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
17.02.11. Quake notices on business bldg, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
Quake notices on scraps of white paper, 1 hand-written, 1 typed, on a Selwyn St bldg:
DEAR CUSTOMERS:
NO LUNCH TIME TRADE
OPEN TUESDAY - SUNDAY
4.30 PM TO 9 PM
CHECKED
292 SELWYN STREET
THIS PREMISES WAS INSPECTED INTERNALLY /
EXTERNALLY BY A QUALIFIED STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
AND FOUND TO BE UNDAMAGED AND STRUCTURALLY
SOUND. MONITORING WILL CONTINUE.
For more information please phone the landlord on...
Another engineer & landlord doing their own checking, not following Christchurch City Council's red, yellow, green sticker protocol. Dubious monitoring: engineer sticker, landlord gave no idea whether it was safe to enter the bldg or not!
17.02.11. DANGER, quake cracked, metal braced, old, brick bldg, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake. Bldg would be demolished post 22.02.11 quake
17.02.11. Jim Anderton's electorate office, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
MP Jim Anderton's office was next to a quake damaged, red stickered, metal braced, 2 storey. It would be demolished post 22.02.11 Killer Quake, leaving Anderton's office standing alone. An ad board above Jim's office read: WHAT JIM SAYS, JIM DOES... Jim would die after his Save Christ Church Cathedral protests. Across the road, yellow or red stickered shops, steel mesh fence cordoned:
Selwyn St / Rosewarne St: Ghost. On the Spot doors boarded, awning damaged, brick parapet fallen, rubble still heaped behind the steel mesh fence cordon, obstructing pedestrian & vehicle traffic.
Next door old, brick, ghost shops, damaged by the Sept 4 Darfield Quake, would be trashed by the Feb 22 Killer Quake. Thereafter a steel mesh fence cordon across Selwyn St would obstruct traffic while the shops were demolished. Why did authorities take so long to demolish those shops?
Ghost: Dancing Shoes shop window notice:
DUE TO THE EARTHQUAKE THIS SHOP IS NOW
CLOSED...
17.02.11. Steel mesh fence cordoned, quake damaged, closed shops, Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 Darfield Quake. Shops would be demolished post 22.02.11 Killer Quake
17.02.11. Quake damaged shops, quake inspection stickers & notices, (shops would be demolished post 22.02.11 quake) Selwyn St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake
Another ghost shop window notice:
SUMMERFIELD UPHOL
HAS MOVED TO
201 WORDSWORTH ST...
Since the Sept 4 Darfield Quake, over the last 5 months I'd seen many relocation notices in ghost shop windows.
While quake demolitions went slowly, quake recovery minister Brownlee wittered at meetings about quake recovery: "Waving a magic wand..." Meanwhile mayor Parker went to Nepal, via Singapore, all expenses paid, to a natural disaster junket, giving a 15 minute talk about Christchurch quake (The Press 18.02.11). Parker's & Brownlee's hubris: days later, 22.02.11, the M6.3 Killer Quake would strike, causing widespread damage, 185 deaths.
17.02.11. Heath St: Together with our landlady, 2 EQC assessors inspected our 1 storey, wooden rental, more than 5 months post Sept 4 Darfield Quake. The two male assessors found more quake damage to our rental than we were aware of. The house pile foundations were not inspected. Our landlady said there was about $10 000 damage & repairs would be done. (Never happened for 3 years before we left!)
17.02.11. Quake damaged, steel mesh fence cordoned, closed, On the Spot shop, Selwyn St / Rosewarne St, 5 months post Sept 4 quake. On the Spot would be demolished post 22.02.11 quake
19.02.11. NZTV news reported that EQC had completed 42 000 claims out of 180 000 claims. EQC had spent 5+ months completing 23% of claims. How would EQC complete the remaining 77% of claims by EQC's 31 March deadline?
*Trekked Selwyn St. 75 snaps.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
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