I also wanted to see Holy Trinity Avonside ruin, an old, stone Anglican Church tucked into Lychgate Cl suburbia, off Stanmore Rd & Avonside Dr. For months post-quakes, ruined Parish Hall could be seen from Avonside Dr / Stanmore Rd crossing, while I waited at traffic-lights. During my daily commutes, driving Luke across town to Sullivan Ave polytech, I drove past those ruins, but wanted a closer look, before they vanished in CERA's demolitions.
20.08.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. London St view, part demolition, Richmond Working Mens Club, London St / Stanmore Rd, post June 13 quake
London St / Stanmore Rd: Over the last couple of weeks the southeast section of Richmond Working Mens Club ruin was being demolished. A brick-wall collapsed in the 22 February 2011 Quake. In the 13 June 2011 Quake, more wall & roof collapsed. Leah said whenever a digger bashed, or a truck rumbled by, her school shook like another aftershock. Students & teachers jittered.
20.08.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Two orange diggers, part demolition, Richmond Working Mens Club, London St / Stanmore Rd, post June 13 quake
School's miseries: Council road-workers repaired London St two months post 13 June 2011 Quake & six months post 22 February 2011 Quake! For days, a digger dug & thumped & was parked on London St after work. To reduce stress on students & teachers, why didn't Council do that noisy, dusty road-work during school holidays? In addition, noisy construction progressed across the road!
26.10.11. Result two months later, London St would still be lumpy, bumpy, potholed near Leah's school. Council wasted money, time, machines, labour, repeatedly patching roads. Why didn't Council get it right first time?
CERA SCIRT's road-repairs run by NZ National govt bureaucrats were slow. SCIRT boss Ford didn't even live in Christchurch. SCIRT was a hotch- potch of engineering contractors & Council, all fixing Christchurch's infrastructure, under CERA's control.
November 2012 to March 2013: SCIRT sewer-renewal excavations & more demolitions of Richmond Working Mens Club! Noisy, jolting machines would give Leah a headache for a week!
Early 2013: SCIRT would excavate Pavitt St & Cumberland St by Leah's school's sewer-renewal. Same miseries for teachers & students!
October 2013: London St was still patched! I'd read all the SCIRT pamphlets obtained from Fendalton Library. They boasted about SCIRT infrastructure rebuild work, like $2 billion would be spent replacing 500km of damaged sewage-pipes out of 1 700km total of sewage-pipes in Christchurch. PR pamphlet titles:
1. WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE ARE DOING
2. KEEPING IN TOUCH
3. SAFETY
4. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
5. REPAIRING UNDERGROUND SERVICES
6. TEMPORARY TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
7. PRIORITISING THE REBUILD
8. UNDERGROUND PIPES
9. BRIDGES
10. RETAINING WALLS
More than three years post 4 September 2010 Quake, Leah would have endured interminable Council & SCIRT excavations & detours on London St, while SCIRT laid pipes, repeating excavations & road-patching ad nauseum. SCIRT would often leave poorly patched roads a bigger mess than quaked-roads.
20.08.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Part demolition, Richmond Working Mens Club, London St / Stanmore Rd, post June 13 quake
London St / Stanmore Rd: I parked by the Village Green, then snapped Richmond Working Mens Club ruin. Two orange diggers were parked on the mostly cleared demolition-site. Rubble lay on the road corner, a steel-mesh-fence-cordon obstructing traffic. Like many ruins I'd seen: closed second-storey doors awaited oblivion, never to be reopened.
20.08.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Demolition rubble, part demolition, Richmond Working Mens Club, London St / Stanmore Rd, post June 13 quake
Stanmore Rd side: RWMC club badge stood high on the white, cracked wall awaiting demolition, while cars passed. Like other demolition-sites around town, steel-mesh-fence-cordon threat-signs:
DANGER
CONSTRUCTION
SITE
FOOTPATH CLOSED
PLEASE USE
OTHER SIDE
20.08.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Stanmore Rd view, part demolition, Richmond Working Mens Club, London St / Stanmore Rd, post June 13 quake
After Richmond Working Mens Club part-demolition was completed, the site would be cleaned. An exposed wall was covered in black-plastic. For months I would drive past that black-plastic-wrapped wall. Building's plastic-wrapped damages or tarp-wrapped damages were a common sight in Christchurch.
16.11.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Black, plastic wrapped wall, Richmond Working Mens Club demolition site, London St / Stanmore Rd
Further up Stanmore Rd, Richmond Methodist Church ruin: still standing, wooden-door locked, old & new red-stickers stated the church's abandonment. Before quakes, Leah took students to the church-hall which was flattened by quakes.
20.08.11. Red stickered, Richmond Methodist Church door, Stanmore Rd, post June 13 quake
20.08.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Orange digger, demolition site, Richmond Methodist Church hall, Stanmore Rd, post June 13 quake
Richmond Methodist Church demolition-site, its steel-mesh-fence-cordon threat-sign:
DANGER
KEEP OUT
The church-hall was gone: Damaged by the 22 February 2011 Quake, trashed by the 13 June 2011 Quake, demolished by CERA. A corrugated-iron pile & a rubble-pile lay on-site. An orange-digger was parked on the church-lawn. A sign on a dust-extractor-machine touted DUST FIGHTER hire.
20.08.11. Green Orbiter bus, Richmond Methodist Church, Stanmore Rd, post June 13 quake
20.08.11. DANGER KEEP OUT. Steel mesh fence cordon. Demolition site, Richmond Methodist Church hall, Stanmore Rd, post June 13 quake
Avonside Dr: I parked by a POLLUTED WATER threat-sign nailed to an Avon River tree by Avonside Girls High School ruin. As quakes trashed Christchurch sewage-pipes, Avon River was an open-sewer.
20.08.11. POLLUTED WATER threat sign, Avon River, Avonside Dr, post June 13 quake
Avonside Girls HS was closed, an old building due for demolition. By locked gates, a sign:
THIS SITE IS CLOSED
BUT THE SCHOOL IS OPEN
AVONSIDE GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY RELOCATED
TO BURNSIDE HIGH SCHOOL, 151 GREERS ROAD, BURNSIDE, 8053
PLEASE DO NOT ENTER THIS SITE - EARTHQUAKE DAMAGED BUILDINGS...
20.08.11. Avonside Girls High closed sign, Avonside Dr, post June 13 quake
Post 22 February 2010 Quake, during school days for many months near home, we saw convoys of red-buses transporting Avonside GHS students to & from Burnside HS.
Avonside Dr / Woodham Rd / Linwood Ave crossing: trashed by quakes since the 4 September 2010 Quake. It was still cracked, bumpy, semi- repaired. Roadside, an orange-pump still pumped sewage from a manhole on slumped Avon River bank. The crossing-repairs would only be completed by October 2012. Avonside Dr / Woodham Rd: The corner house would be demolished.
20.08.11. Quake damaged Avonside Dr / Woodham Rd, post June 13 quake. The road cnr was repeatedly damaged by quakes since the Sept 4 quake, as it lined Avon River bank. The cnr house would be demolished.
20.08.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Orange, roadside pump, Avonside Dr / Woodham Rd, post June 13 quake. The cnr house behind the cop car would be demolished
Avonside Dr: I trekked to Holy Trinity Anglican Church ruin, snapping pics en route, traffic jostling by: a liquefactioned house demolition-site, & a collapsed neighbouring garage seen; two ghost-houses seen, snow still in overgrown-gardens.
20.08.11. Liquefaction mud, quake damaged garage, Avonside Dr, post June 13 quake
20.08.11. Quake damaged house, Avonside Dr, post June 13 quake
20.08.11. NORTH TRAFFIC USE STANMORE RD. WORKS END. Holy Trinity Avonside entrance, Avonside Dr, post June 13 quake
Holy Trinity Avonside ruin, footpath entrance's orange road-sign:
NORTH TRAFFIC
USE STANMORE RD
Minister Brownlee's & CERA flunkeys dictates: Since quakes, many new road-signs & CBD new, checkpoint-signs directed traffic, banning citizens the red-zone CBD.
A skinny man in orange Hi-Vis vest, no hard-hat, no tools, no clipboard, scowled at me when scuttling from ruined Parish Hall's steel-mesh-fence-cordon. No other workers on site. Was he a thief?
20.08.11. Belfry & lychgate, undamaged by quakes, Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl, post June 13 quake
20.08.11. Red stickered, Holy Trinity Avonside, steel mesh fence cordon, Lychgate Cl, post June 13 quake
The green wooden-lychgate survived the quakes. The steel-belfry near the carpark also survived. The red-sticker on the steel-mesh-fence-cordon enclosing ruined Trinity Avonside Church looked ridiculous! No-one in their right mind would enter that ruin. The steel-mesh-fence-cordon weaved past old gravestones. A south side garden-fence completed closure.
20.08.11. Bench plaque, Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl, post June 13 quake
20.08.11. DANGER KEEP OUT. Steel mesh fence cordon. Quake surviving, W facade, Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl, post June 13 quake
DANGER: A late afternoon, sunny mess. The church's western greystone facade still stood, locked wooden-door & stained-glass-window intact. The grey-slated church-roof conked eastwards, separating roof from the western facade. I saw right through the church-sides from north to south. The rest of the church was kaput: Eastern part of roof collapsed, greystone-transepts, nave, chancel-walls & windows collapsed, scaffolding trashed, greystone-rubble everywhere, roof-chunks resting on greystones. The western wooden-roof-arches still stood, supporting some slate-roof. Roof snow still lay in shadowy nooks.
20.08.11. DANGER. Steel mesh fence cordon. Quake trashed S walls & windows, Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl, post June 13 quake
20.08.11. Quake trashed SE roof & walls, Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl, post June 13 quake
Graveyard sign by the steel-mesh-fence-cordon: PLEASE USE UNBREAKABLE CONTAINERS FOR FLOWERS. Too late, as pre-quakes church authorities hadn't strengthened the church, making it unbreakable. They had years to do so!
20.08.11. Cemetery sign, steel mesh fence cordon, Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl, post June 13 quake
20.08.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. NE view, quake trashed Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl, post June 13 quake
20.08.11. William Rolleston grave stones, Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl, post June 13 quake
20.08.11. DANGER. Steel mesh fence cordon. E view, quake trashed Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl, post June 13 quake
20.08.11. DANGER. Steel mesh fence cordon. SE view, quake trashed Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl, post June 13 quake
20.08.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. NE view, quake trashed Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl, post June 13 quake
20.08.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. N view, quake trashed Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl, post June 13 quake
Ruin after ruin, wooden-arches proved the strength of wood as a building material in quake-zones. I'd seen several ruined-churches where brick-walls & stone-walls collapsed, but roofs stayed intact under wooden-arches. Examples: Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl; St Lukes, Manchester St; St Johns, Latimer Sq; Samoan Church, Cashel St; Knox Presbyterian, Bealey Ave; Chinese Methodist, Papanui Rd...
20.08.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. N view, surviving roof structures, quake trashed Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl, post June 13 quake
26.10.11. Two months later I would return to Holy Trinity Avonside. Parish Hall & Holy Trinity Church were gone, demolished. Just the green- lychgate was left. A yellow-digger dug sand & heaped greystones on the church's demolition-site.
26.10.11. Parish Hall demolition site view, Holy Trinity Avonside demolition site, Lychgate Cl
26.10.11. W side cemetery view, Holy Trinity Avonside demolition site, Lychgate Cl
26.10.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Green Lychgate, after Holy Trinity Avonside demolition, Lychgate Cl
*Trekked London St, Stanmore Rd, Avonside Dr, Lychgate Cl. 117 snaps.
Coda:
2020-21. New Richmond Club would be built on old Richmond Working Mens Club site, London St / Stanmore Rd. 2021-2024 Jake would chef there. Richmond Methodist Church would move to Marshlands Rd where it was abandoned for years. New Richmond Club would absorb Richmond Methodist Church site, occupying most of the block bordered by London St, Stanmore Rd, Avalon St, Cumberland St. A small shopping centre would occupy Stanmore Rd / Avalon St, complete with cafes, restaurants & a Youth Centre.
2020-21. New Holy Trinity Avonside would be built on the church demolition-site. The green Lych Gate & wooden Church Office would survive the quakes. The cemetery stayed as-is, higgledy-piggledy gravestones left alone. CERA's residential-red-zone next to church-grounds was devoid of housing after CERA demolitions, all the way to Avonside Dr & Avon River. Across Avon River, beyond River Rd, residential-red-zone would continue, devoid of demolished-housing, till green-zone housing began. After LINZ returned residential-red-zone to Council control, residential- red-zone would remain as parkland beside Avon River, beneath old, homely trees.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
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