Cathedral Square - a national disgrace

Friday, 20 February 2026

This is not what Christchurch’s most important public space should look like.

Martin van Beynen is a Press journalist and regular opinion contributor.

OPINION: On Sunday we mark the 15th anniversary of earthquakes that left the city of Christchurch in ruins.

While the city and its loyal local developers have made great strides in helping it rise from the ashes, a corrosive blight continues to mar any self-congratulation. I’m talking about Cathedral Square.

We have got into the habit of not caring much about what happens in New Zealand cities other than our own. Our big cities and their perceived shortcomings are subjects of fun.

But it should be a serious national issue. Auckland’s traffic nightmare should concern us all; that Wellington’s centre has become a wasteland should worry the whole country and that Hamilton lacks character is a national failure.

Our cities should be regarded as our foremost trading partners. A major city failing to attract people and investment and struggling with social problems is a liability for the entire country. A city hindered by a serious failure in a crucial area is an opportunity lost to the whole population.

That’s why people all around the country should care about the festering sore in the heart of Christchurch that is stopping the city reaching its potential.

The Christ Church Cathedral and surrounding square occupy the most important public space in the city, perhaps in the country. The square has undergone many iterations over the years, none achieving much, but its place as the centre of the city has never changed. Most New Zealand cities have a central place but none have the characteristics of the truly central, numero uno place that is Cathedral Square. It is a national gem of urban planning and city infrastructure.

Although efforts have been made to flatten the expanse of the square and open up its sunnier corners, it has pretty much been a waste of time for a number of reasons. The main one is that the cathedral, as iconic to the city as the Avon River and mountain views, is an unsightly obstacle to any revamp.

It’s belated repair, begun several years ago, stalled for lack of funding and a revised, more modest plan, sees part of the cathedral opening in 2030 if the required millions (anybody’s guess but probably around $100m) can be found.

It’s scandalous enough that 15 years after the city crumbled, the cathedral repair languishes in the doldrums. What is more outrageous is that its construction and safety zone, securely and imposingly fenced off with generous margins, has destroyed the square. It’s like having a maximum security prison in the middle of the city. God knows what visitors make of it.

The uncertainty means investors and developers are reluctant to bring projects for the square’s border off the drawing board. Those that have taken the plunge find themselves struggling for tenants.

A performance in Cathedral Square during the World Buskers festival last month. Despite such events, Martin van Beynen says the square is a national disgrace.

A restored and thriving cathedral will bring life back to the square but it still needs people-dense and coherent businesses on it borders, which currently feature forbidding hotel facades, car parks, empty retail spaces and gaping holes.

Even if the cathedral was restored to its former glory and the fences removed, we are still left with the two important quarters of the square bisected by roads. This makes absolutely no sense if you want to create a public space featuring definite borders and mostly unimpeded, easily walkable space inside.

All these proposed enhancements should be uncontroversial but opposition can be expected. I have already tried to explain why the state of the square is a national issue and the city’s MPs should be lobbying hard for government to shell out for its top priority project.

I understand why the Government and New Zealand public would resist a national contribution. Christchurch has had major government funding after the earthquakes and also got help funding the new stadium, Te Kaha ($230m) and the Parakiore recreation centre (about $350m). Both, however, will generate lots of tax money for the Government, as would a redeveloped square.

But maybe Christchurch itself should bite the bullet and stump up for the restoration of the cathedral and revamping of the square, even if it should be a national project. It’s shameful and somewhat pathetic that a city now seen as the most vibrant and go-ahead in the country cannot organise the funding to rejuvenate its most important public space.

Some will say let the Anglican church fork out to restore the cathedral.. However, someone will still need to fix the square and to put the onus on the church is to miss the point that the cathedral is first and foremost a public building and should be used as such.

There are many demands for contributions from the city’s cash. The new museum needs more public money, as does the Arts Centre and the Air Force museum but, to use a medical analogy, the most important organs must be rescued first.

Other naysayers will object to the road closures required to inject life into the square. However the city has stopped roads for the stadium and the new convention centre. Doing the same for the cathedral is the logical next step.

After 15 wasted years, it’s time for the city and the country to see the square and its great wounded Gothic edifice as revealing our past and pointing to our future.

We need to get it done, and fast.