Up until February 22nd, 2011, the city of Christchurch was a unique, historic and cultural living and breathing entity. Inherited from a long list of valuable contributors dating back to its incep…
The growing permanence and sophistication of Christchurch, is evident in this photograph of Lichfield Street. Taken by the Burton Brother’s, the photograph shows us that the little frontier …
On this summer’s day in 1906, the ten o’clock morning tram to Sumner is about to depart from outside the Royal Exchange in Cathedral Square. An excursion to Sumner was a popular outing …
The pace of town appears leisurely as pedestrians meander across High Street, while several trams slowly move past them c. 1929. There are a large number of men on they bicycles – perhaps th…
In response to the loss of our inner city of Christchurch, we were inspired to create this website, Lost Christchurch, as a freely accessible archive of photographs, social history and memories of …
Wendy Riley A relative newcomer to Christchurch, Wendy has deep-rooted connections to the city. Her ancestors, like many colonial New Zealanders, traced their origins to Scotland and England. After…
The M7.1 Darfield earthquake shook the town of Christchurch (New Zealand) in the early morning on Saturday 4th September 2010 and caused damage to a number of heritage unreinforced masonry buildings. No fatalities were reported directly linked to the earthquake, but the damage to important heritage buildings was the most extensive to have occurred since the 1931 Hawke‟s Bay earthquake. In general, the nature of damage was consistent with observations previously made on the seismic performance of unreinforced masonry buildings in large earthquakes, with aspects such as toppled chimneys and parapets, failure of gables and poorly secured face-loaded walls, and in-plane damage to masonry frames all being extensively documented. This report on the performance of the unreinforced masonry buildings in the 2010 Darfield earthquake provides details on typical building characteristics, a review of damage statistics obtained by interrogating the building assessment database that was compiled in association with post-earthquake building inspections, and a review of the characteristic failure modes that were observed.
Unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings have repeatedly been shown to perform poorly in large magnitude earthquakes, with both New Zealand and Australia having a history of past earthquakes that have resulted in fatalities due to collapsed URM buildings. A comparison is presented here of the URM building stock and the seismic vulnerability of Christchurch and Adelaide in order to demonstrate the relevance to Australian cities of observations in Christchurch resulting from the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquake swarm. It is shown that the materials, architecture and hence earthquake strength of URM buildings in both countries is comparable and that Adelaide and other cities of Australia have seismic vulnerability sufficient to cause major damage to their URM buildings should a design level earthquake occur. Such an earthquake is expected to cause major building damage, and fatalities should be expected.
Photos of the old Canterbury Public Library being demolished. File reference: CCL-2011-09-29-librarydemolition06 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
File reference: CCL-2011-08-12-CanterburyPublic Library pre-demolition-033 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Photos taken in Lyttelton following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-05-24--Loons-LYP1120500 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken at Gap Filler fair on April 9 following the February 22 earthquake. www.gapfiller.org.nz/ File reference: CCL-2011-04-08-Addington-Gapfiller-003.jpg From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken in Bishopdale Library on April 8 following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-08-Bisopdale-After-The-Earthquake-IMG_0450 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken in Bishopdale Library on April 8 following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-08-Bisopdale-After-The-Earthquake-IMG_0454 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken in Bishopdale Library on April 8 following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-08-Bisopdale-After-The-Earthquake-IMG_0447 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
File reference: CCL-2011-04-08-Lyttelton-Library-P1110823 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries Photos of Lyttelton Library on Friday 8 April, the day it re-opened after the February 22 earthquake.
File reference: CCL-2011-04-08-Lyttelton-Library-P1110824 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries Photos of Lyttelton Library on Friday 8 April, the day it re-opened after the February 22 earthquake.
Photos taken of the Mobile Library on March 31, 2011 following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-03-31-Mobile-After-The-Earthquake-NB Parkland 022 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken of the Mobile Library on March 31, 2011 following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-03-31-Mobile-After-The-Earthquake-NB Parkland 024 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken in Parklands Library on March 31 following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-03-31-New Brighton-After-The-Earthquake-NB Parkland 011 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 19 showing the demolition of buildings on London Street, Lyttelton, following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-19-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0195 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 19 showing the demolition of buildings on London Street, Lyttelton, following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-19-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0180 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 19 showing the demolition of buildings on London Street, Lyttelton, following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-19-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0164 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Photos taken in Lyttelton showing the demolition of various buildings following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-05-20-Lyttelton-Demolition-P1120471 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Photos taken in Lyttelton showing the demolition of various buildings following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-29-Lyttelton-Demolition-P1120217 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Photos taken in Lyttelton showing the demolition at various locations following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-05-20-Lyttelton-Demolition-P1120473 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Photos taken in Lyttelton following the February 22 earthquake. File ref: CCL-2011-03-05-After-The-Earthquake-P1110585 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken in Lyttelton following the February 22 earthquake. File ref: CCL-2011-03-05-After-The-Earthquake-P1110570 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken in Lyttelton following the February 22 earthquake. File ref: CCL-2011-03-05-After-The-Earthquake-P1110571 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken in Lyttelton following the February 22 earthquake. File ref: CCL-2011-03-05-After-The-Earthquake-P1110540 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries