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One option facing Christchurch city is an ‘Anglican-free’ future that no longer clings to its Anglican past.
Christ Church Cathedral was a symbol of Christchurch. “What will the new symbol be?” asks Professor Michael Grimshaw, a Canterbury University sociologist.
Grimshaw says that since the 2011 earthquakes destroyed much of the central city, its heart has moved from Cathedral Square towards Cashel St and the Avon River.
In Grimshaw’s opinion, the Square is dead.
“It’s basically a giant big traffic island” he says.
Grimshaw believes the city’s narrative should be rewritten, putting its Anglican past behind it, giving it a fresh start and creating a 21st-century modern city.
Other diverging perspectives
The future of Cathedral Square in Christchurch is now impossible to predict as the project to restore Christ Church Cathedral is likely to be mothballed.
Several opinions about the Square’s future have emerged.
Some see the half-collapsed cathedral as a pile of rubble that should be removed.
Others don’t want the cathedral remains dumped.
Philip Burdon, a former Cabinet minister who co-led the campaign to save the cathedral, said mothballing was the best option in the circumstances.
“The reality is, it is going to be an unhappy economy for a couple of years. After mothballing for a couple of years, we should be in a more positive environment for public and private funding.
“I certainly do not regard demolition as a good option” he says.
However, a food truck owner has a different perspective.
“I think we should take it down and just start new again. It would be safer and more beautiful, and stronger” the food truck owner told The Press.
“It’s not very good in this area, especially at night. Even the tourists come, and they can’t see anything here – so they go to another place.”
When he heard the “incredibly sad and disappointing” news, Mark Stewart, who chairs Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Limited, said the board would meet this coming Monday to discuss its implications.
“With the Government’s decision, the pathway to completion is much longer and mothballing is now likely” he said.
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