Old Normal School to be demolished

Press, 21 February 1980, Page 4

Old Normal School to be demolished

The old Normal School building in Cranmer Square will be demolished after a decision yesterday by the Minister of Lands (Mr V. S. Young). A proposal to realign Montreal Street through the Normal School site was incorporated in. the Christchurch district scheme, said the land management officer in the Lands and Survey Department (Mr A. T. Dodds) when discussing the decision. / A meeting of interested parties, was called yesterday by the Christchurch City Council’s City Planner (Mr W. T. Williams). At the meeting were representatives of the Christchurch Civic Trust,■ the Ferrymead Trust, the Historic Places Trust, and the Lands and Survey Department.

Mr Williams said the meeting regretted the demolition of the main wings of the , Normal School but felt it essential .that the octagon section at the corner of Montreal Street and Kilmore Street be preserved.

Preferably it should be'preserved on the present site or, alternatively, on another suitable location, he said. It was hoped that the remaining portion of the building would be carefully demolished, the aim being to recover useful building materials, such as stonework slates and carved window frames, he said. These should be stockpiled for use in restoring other sites associated with the history of Christchurch, said Mr Williams. Mr Dodds said that while

various organisations had come forward with suggestions about the fate of the 100-year-old building, it would take a lot of money to preserve and renovate it. Although it was an earthquake risk and structurally unsound, the' corner section might be the strongest part of the building, he said. No decision had yet been made on the fate of the balance of the site. A spokesman for the Christchurch Civic Trust, Mr G. Robertson, said that after 10 years of “procrastination by Government departments” it came as no surprise that the Minister had decided to have the building demolished. “Our reaction is sheer disappointment at the incredible nature of the decision after 10 years of hassles,” he said. In its present state there was little alternative, but if

a decision had been made 10. years ago it could have been preserved,"'he said. Successive Ministers had shown- a complete lack of activity on a decision about the building, and in that time it had deteriorated and become so badly , vandalised, that the decision was “made for them” in the end, said Mr Robertson. Now the decision had been made, the trust would concentrate on the preservation of the octagon corner section and ensure , that any roading plans did not infringe on this portion. / -i The Government had- relied on an out-of-date report, first published in 1963 and not released until 1978, he said. The report was out of touch with present-day structural engineering techniques that could have been used to preserve the building, Mr Robertson said.'