The design of many cities in New Zealand drew strongly on the influence of cities in Britain in general, and England in particular. In this case the inspiration was Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. The Canterbury Association was formed in England in 1848 with the intention of creating a colony in the South Island of New Zealand named (naturally enough) Canterbury, and with a capital city named Christchurch.

The intention was to create that city around a central cathedral and college in a similar style, as I said, to Oxford.

The cathedral side of things commenced with Henry Harper, the first Bishop of Christchurch who arrived in 1856. Construction was approved by the diocese in 1858, with the design being commissioned from George Gilbert Scott (1811 to 1878). His emphasis was on the English Gothic Revival style. (Apparently he also designed St Pancras railway station in London which I would visit 2 years into the future.) He originally proposed a design in timber, but Bishop Harper apparently wanted a stone one, presumably because he thought that it would be more robust and timeless. If only he knew.

Construction began in December 1864 but a lack of funds saw it halted in 1865. At that time Christchurch had a population of only a few hundred people and the funds weren't really there for a magnificent stone cathedral. Construction didn't recommence until 1873 with a local architect, Benjamin Mountfort, taking over the project and adapting Scott's design. The church was consecrated in 1881, but construction still wasn't complete until 1904.

In the meantime, earthquakes had already damaged the building (especially the spire) in 1881, 1888 and 1901. That really should have been a sign. Another damaging earthquake occurred in 1922, and then things were quiet for a while until 2010 when the precursor earthquake did some more damage before the main 2011 earthquake really went to town on the building.

We'll come back to the story a little bit later on.

The monument over on the left is not strictly speaking part of the church. It is the Citizens' War Memorial, which we will come back to in a later image as well.