Where has all the rubble gone?

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32457, 18 November 1970, Page 1

Where has all the rubble gone?

(By

R. S. LINDSAY)

In 12 years of demoli- « tion work in Christ- L church, Ryan Brothers p have changed the face a of Christchurch. Yester- 1 day the firm completed its last job. Where have e all the buildings gone d which were once land- “ marks in the City?

The old railway station, reduced to rubble in 1958-59, now lies in the city rubbish dump off Rowan Avenue. In time it could be the foundation for a housing estate, a municipal golf course, or a park. The ruins of the Bank of New South Wales, in Hereford Street, provide a foundation for Merry Park, where the City Council is making an all-weather athletic track and hockey fields. The old air terminal buildings of Christchurch Airport, a portion of the Metro Theatre, Sydenham, a bank and an insurance building are also buried in the park. Canterbury athletes who run on the tract in the future should be flyers, perhaps assured of success in photo finishes. Two banks, a church and an insurance company build4.

ing have been used to fill Lake Bryndwr. Over the years J. and B. Ryan have knocked down and carted away more than 100 big buildings in Christchurch, Oamafu, Dunedin, Westport qnd Wellington. Between times the firm has demolished hundreds of houses—at times as many as eight a Week. The ruins of the Grand

Theatre, Cathedral Square, lie at the bottom of a Sockburn shingle pit now filled, making an industrial area. Are the security guards at night haunted by Tarzan and the Apes? Do they long for the Colt revolvers of Tom Mix and Ken Maynard? Were any of the senior staff in the factories caned for bunking school to see Boris Karloff? The Latimer Dance Hall, Ballantynes, the Para Rubber Company, Amuri Motors, the Tepid Baths, the Limes Hospital, the A.M.P. building, the Government Life . . . their ruins all lie buried as fill for , shingle pits, foundations for new buildings, for parks, rei serves and roads. Kauri timber from a bank i forms the top floor of a 109- ■ year-old house in Akaroa; i magnificent staircases are > part of beach houses in South Brighton, and Oregon beams I from one of the city’s former • “stately homes" support a *

new suburban church. Oamaru stone from Dalgety’s will provide pointings for Christchurch’s two cathedrals. . . .

The old Christchurch Transport Board building in the Square, so recently demolished, lies buried under a future housing block in Bexley. Better, perhaps, to have gone to Ferryrnead to provide a foundation for the tram lines?

In all the years Ryan Brothers have never discovered treasure trove—although, quite recently, children fossicking in the Rowan Avenue rubbish dump, found a roll of £5 notes in rubble from a building put there by Ryans. “The fivers disappeared in all directions—among the kiddies. The police managed to recover £4O, but I don’t think the money has ’been claimed yet,” Mr J. Ryan recalled yesterday. Once, when demolishing two adjoining buildings, the firm’s workmen found the skeleton of a cat which had been trapped between two walls—and the skeleton of the rat the cat had been hunting. The biggest surprise the firm had was when it demolished the property of the late Mr J. H. Rhodes, “Oakford,” in Riccarton Road.

“It was a house with a score or more rooms,. and t one of the show places of . Christchurch in its day. We pushed it over, and—bless s my soul—ripped the top off J a wine cellar in the concrete r foundations. f

“It was well stocked. The bottles were covered with dust and cobwebs. The boys Said the wine was prejty good,” said Mr Ryan. And his eye had a reminiscent gleam.