Breaking News: Handing Over the Reigns of a Reign…

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

I’m jumping out of my Harderwijk Dolphinarium posts to bring you some breaking News:

Last evening we switched on the Dutch News at 6.00 p.m. to find that there was only one item of news on the News that evening: The Dutch Queen, Queen Beatrix was scheduled to address the nation on all TV and Radio channels simultaneously at 7.00 p.m.

The Press, Royal watchers and everyone who might be in the know all speculated for the next hour on what the big announcement would be, but only one topic was likely: the news that she would be announcing her abdication.

Unlike English Kings and Queens who as one Dutch commentator rather literally put it:  ”die in harness”,  the last three Dutch Monarchs have chosen to hand over the reigns of the job of Head of State whilst their oldest child was still young and strong enough to take over the strenuous duties of constant travel and public engagements. The Dutch Monarch still plays a strong role in Government and affairs of State, so much so that Queen Beatrix has a working place and offices close to the Dutch Parliament.

Some speculated that since not even privileged Royal correspondents who are often privy to inside information had been forewarned of the announcement or it’s contents that possibly there might be a different reason for the broadcast (with reference to the fact that Beatrix’s second oldest son Prince Johan Friso has been laying in a coma in a London hospital since the beginning of 2012 after  being transferred there after being buried  by an avalanche in Austria whilst on a skiing holiday.)

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

It was correctly assumed that even if there was bad news concerning Prince Friso, that it would not warrant the Queen making the announcement over all TV and radio channels simultaneously.

Indeed the news did turn out to be notification of abdication: Beatrix  will  be 75 years of age in a few days and is choosing to hand the throne over to her oldest son: Prince Willem-Alexander.

Beatrix herself gained the throne when her own mother, Juliana abdicated in 1980 at 70 years of age, taking her lead from Wilhelmina before her who abdicated in 1948 at 68 years of age.

Some Royal watchers already wondered if it might have been expected to  happen a decade earlier when Beatrix’s husband Price Claus passed away in 2002, or when her mother and father passed away in 2003 and 2004 respectively but Willem-Alexander only married in 2002 and I assume she wanted him to have some quality time,  less in the public eye with his new wife and subsequent new family of daughters.

Dutch Monarchs are not “crowned”, but instead inaugurated, and since much of Royal life takes place in and around The Hague where the Queen lives and works and were she opens Parliament each year or Delft where Royal monarchs are buried, it’s traditional that this inauguration takes place instead in Amsterdam and so spreads a royal event a little further around the Netherlands.

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

The reason for an inauguration and not a crowning is that the Dutch monarch is the Head of State but not head of the Church (as is the case with the Queen of England) and Crowning a Head of State is apparently linked only to those who are also head of the Church in their nations.

The date chosen for the inauguration will be 30th April, already the national holiday in the Netherlands called “Koninginnedag” (Queen’s Day) and since this is traditionally the day when anyone in the Netherlands may hold a flee-market without the need for the usual licence, it become the traditional day of street markets up and down the country where especially children can sell their old toys for a little extra pocket money.

Himself and I are not generally supporters of Monarchy (and to spite me for this I get two of them: Queen Elizabeth as Head of State of New Zealand on my Kiwi passport and Beatrix on my Dutch one) as I find it hard to reconcile the fact that someone who is not democratically elected gets to live a life of privilege on taxpayer expense and worse, that if Lizzy or her offspring chooses to take a jaunt to New Zealand the New Zealand tax payer is expected to pick up the very hefty bill for these travels …for one of the richest women on earth.

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

At least the British can say that their Queen earns her keep a little by bringing in a few tourists to the UK, meantime she brings the grand total of zero tourists into New Zealand and thanks to the tight knit regulations of the Club called the European Union, no trade benefits either.

It’s not to say I wish them ill, but if I were ever given the chance to vote for a Republic, I would be one of the first at the voting booth to cast my vote. Naturally I might change my tune if Lizzy would be so kind as to return the favour and pick up my bills for a trip to to United Kingdom, hey I’m even cheap because I don’t require half the countries police force to provide security during my visit.

Whilst Himself and I wanted to watch the Queen’s address because it was a historic moment for us as Dutch citizens, Himself’s own republican leanings couldn’t help themselves when it came to light that the inauguration would be on 30th April. He ruefully lamented that technically it’s brilliant timing because Koninginnedag is probably the most nationalistic day in the Dutch calendar, but it will be an especially lousy sales day for about a million Dutch kids as all the adults stay indoors glued to their television sets to watch the Netherlands loose a Queen and gain a King.

The least they could do is to have the ceremony later in the afternoon so that everyone could happily do both but I’m not holding my breath for that one.

Of course we know what will be Page One News throughout the Netherlands tomorrow and in the next months as preparations for the abdication and inauguration take shape… but agree with having a monarchy or not, History is in the making.

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

Beatrix’s mother: Queen Juliana (who was in ill health when she abdicated)

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

Beatrix’s grandmother: Wilhelmina

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

The Replica of Flora de Lamar Stands Tall… VERY Tall…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Just around the corner from Dutch Square in Melaka, is a sight that will stop you in your tracks and make you go “whoa!!!”.

It’s been out of sight whilst we’ve been in Dutch Square but now that we’ve rounded the corner the exclamations and “wow’s” are coming thick and fast.

What confronts us is a full sized replica of a 16th Century Portuguese galleon called the “Flora de Lamar” that sank off the Melaka coast whilst returning to Portugal. It’s beyond massive: standing at 34 meters (111.549 feet)  in height and 8 meters (26.246 feet) in width.

By today’s standards for ship proportions, this galleon looks stunning but I find myself wondering where in earth the centre of gravity is and if  maybe it sank because it was simply too top heavy?

It’s massively tall for it’s length… but since the Portuguese successfully circumnavigated the globe and were master mariners it’s clearly must have been a design that worked. It’s possible for visitors to climb up to the upper deck of the galleon to enjoy the view.

Maybe it’s just as well we don’t have time to go aboard, it’s a step too far for me on crutches… definitely something for a return visit. The museum itself is housed inside the  replica ship and focuses on the maritime history of Melaka throughout it’s various phases: from the Sultanate, to Portuguese, Dutch and British eras.

http://malacca.attractionsinmalaysia.com/Maritime-Museum.php

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Even the Church has Changed it’s Stripes… But is Not Separated From This World…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

You are leafing through the pages of my travel diary as I document our travel adventures of December 2011 and January 2012. At the moment we are taking a side trip to Melaka Malaysia, as part of an almost week long stopover in Singapore on our way back home to the Netherlands.

Dutch Square in Melaka has me captivated… it’s wall-to-wall tropical heat but here I am, mesmerised by beautiful buildings, culture and a heap of history… what’s not to like?

The latest building to capture my attention is the Melaka Christ Church. Painted in the same pink/red as the Stadthuys on one side and the Youth Museum and Art Gallery on the other, this previously Dutch Reformed church has been through it’s share of changes because  it’s now an Anglican church.

I love going inside all historical buildings,  and love churches too, but sadly we just don’t have time to see and experience all that Melaka has to offer in one short day trip, especially one that involves six hours of coach travel.

From Wikipedia I learn:

“The church is built in Dutch Colonial architecture style and is laid out in a simple rectangle of 82 feet (25 m) by 42 feet (13 m). The ceiling rises to 40 feet (12 m) and is spanned by wooden beams, each carved from a single tree.

The roof is covered with Dutch tiles and the walls were raised using Dutch bricks built on local laterite blocks then coated with Chinese plaster. The floors of the church are paved with granite blocks originally used as ballast for merchant ships.

The Dutch conquest of Malacca from the Portuguese Empire in 1641 saw the proscription of Roman Catholicism and the conversion of existing churches to Dutch Reformed use. The old St. Paul’s Church at the summit of St. Paul Hill was renamed the Bovenkerk (High Church) and used as the main parish church of the Dutch community.

In 1741, in commemoration of the centenary of the capture of Malacca from the Portuguese, the Dutch burgher community decided to build a new church to replace the aging Bovenkerk. 

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The foundation stone was laid by the Malacca born Captain of the Malacca Burghers, Abraham de Wind, on behalf of his father, Claas de Wind, a prominent Burgher who had been the Secunde (Deputy Governor) of Malacca.

The church was completed 12 years later in 1753 and replaced the Bovenkerk as the primary Dutch Reformed Church in Dutch Malacca. 

With the signing of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, possession of Malacca was transferred to the British East India Company and in 1838, the church was re-consecrated with the rites of the Church of England by the Rt. Rev. Daniel Wilson, the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta and renamed Christ Church.

Originally painted white, the church and the neighbouring Stadthuys building was painted red in 1911 and this distinctive colour scheme has remained the hallmark of Malacca’s Dutch-era buildings since. The original Dutch windows were reduced and ornamented after the British takeover of Malacca and the porch and vestry were built only in the mid-19th century.

The floors of the church also incorporate various tombstones with Portuguese and Armenian inscriptions used as paving blocks. Memorial plaques in Dutch, Armenian and English also adorn the interior of the church. Some Armenian inscriptions provide an interesting panorama of life in the Dutch period:

“Greetings, you who are reading this tablet of my tomb in which I now sleep. Give me the news, the freedom of my countrymen, for them I did much weep. If there arose among them one good guardian to govern and keep. Vainly I expected the world to see a good shepherd came to look after the scattered sheep.”

“I, Jacob, grandson of Shamier, an Armenian of a respectable family whose name I keep, was born in Persia near Inefa, where my parents now forever sleep. Fortune brought me to distant Malacca, which my remains in bondage to keep. Separated from the world on 7th July 1774 A.D. at the age of twenty-nine, my mortal remains were deposited in this spot of the ground which I purchased.” 

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The church bell is inscribed with the date 1698 suggesting that it was used for another purpose prior to the completion of the church.
The church’s collection of Kerk Boek (Church Book), Resolutie Boek (Resolution Book), Rapporten (Reports) as well as the Doop Boek (Baptism Register) going back to the earliest Dutch times in Malacca have survived through the centuries. These antiquated documents are now being kept at the National Archives of Malaysia.

Silver altar vessels dating back to the early Dutch period are also in the possession of the church but are kept in storage and rarely taken out for display. The altar Bible has a cover made of brass inscribed with the passage from John 1:1 in Dutch.

I love the serenity in the prose that describes Jacob’s date of death:  ”separated from the world on… ” .. and I was struck by the fact that he was only twenty-nine years of age. Life back then was apparently tough, … and short.

These days we have creature comforts Jacob could not have even dreamt about, medications not the least of them. We travel with speed and comfort, we can exchange information around the world at speeds almost beyond our own comprehension, we are well educated and we enjoy long life expectancy. I wonder what Jacob would make of us all if he could come back and see us today?

One thing is for sure… Melaka then was probably as much  a cross-roads, meeting point and place of vibrancy then as it is today. And in that, Jacob, who sleeps eternally in his little purchased spot in the church, would have felt very much at home.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church,_Malacca

Stadthuys / Stadhuis … Still Mysterious in Red…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

In this page of my travel diary we are in Dutch Square in Melaka, Malaysia.  In yesterday’s post we saw the most obvious Dutch building: a windmill,  but one of the oldest and most famous is situated just across the square: the Stadthuys.

“Stadthuys”  in Dutch means “Town Hall” but this spelling is the outdated one and has long since been superseded in the Netherlands by the word “Stadhuis”.

The Stadthuys in Melaka dates back to 1650 and was built by the Dutch as the offices of the Dutch Governor and (say some sources:his deputy)  because Melaka was at the time the administrative capital of the region here under Dutch occupation and control.

The Square here has various names: “Dutch Square”  is one of them and another is “Red Square”.  This second name came about because  although the buildings here are made of bricks, the British  painted over it in a shade of salmon pink for maintenance reasons and then year later the state government tweaked the colour to the present day hue of  pinky-red for  they are now famous.

The Stadthuys is the oldest remaining Dutch colonial building in Asia and currently houses the Museum of History and Ethnography and inside are displays of  the history, artifacts and traditional costumes of Melaka.

I found a detailed article on the Stadthuys here: http://www.hollandfocus.com/v2/index.php/magazine/contributors/dennisdewitt/99-dennisdewitt/111-ddwstadthuys

and from it learned (somewhat edited for brevity) :

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

“The Stadthuys of Malacca is a reproduction of the former Stadhuis (town hall) of the Frisian town of Hoorn in the Netherlands. However, the former Stadhuis of Hoorn only existed from 1420 until 1796.

Hoorn’s former Stadhuis was replaced in 1796 by a building that is now known as “het oude stadhuis” (the old town hall), which is still  there and in use until 1977  Hoorn’s current Town Hall is a modern building.

Therefore, anybody who wishes to see what the former Stadhuis of Hoorn looked like in the 15th to 18th centuries,  only the Stadthuys of Malacca can give an excellent representation of the now extinct Frisian building.

The Stadthuys was situated within the walls of Malacca fort and located opposite the northern gateway into the fortified town, across the river. The fort itself encompassed a considerable area surrounding the hill of St. Paul’s, which accommodated offices and warehouses for the VOC and all the amenities needed by its colony. The fort walls no longer exist today thanks to the folly and vandalism of the British who maliciously ordered its destruction while safeguarding Dutch possessions in Asia from the French, during the Napoleonic wars.

The Stadthuys is a massive complex. The building’s interior has two floors and it is 30 metres wide. Apart from being the governors’ house, the Stadthuys also includes the Secretary’s office, a prayer room, a dining room, a guest house, servant’s quarters, the home of the Chief Merchant, a prison, trade office, warehouses, courtyards and a detached bakery. 

The spacious records room of the Stadthuys is exceptionally suitable for the preservation of official documents, even though tropical climate is often the cause for the swift deterioration of paper. With massive metre thick walls, a high ceiling and big floor tiles, it provides a cool interior atmosphere and apparently has a dry-cellar effect.

Standing at the Dutch Square, the Stadthuys appears majestically impressive with its big windows, doors and stairs. On the outside, a stone balustrade leads a dual stairway to a small balcony that is also accessible through a door on the first floor. 

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

During the Dutch rule of Malacca, the Stadthuys, like all the other Dutch administration buildings in Southeast Asia, was painted white. By way of the Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1824, Malacca was given up by the Dutch and the town became a British colony. In 1911, the British painted the Stadthuys and the Christ Church a salmon red.

The actual reasons as to why these buildings were painted red by the British is now lost in time but legends and theories are abundant.

One opinion was that the buildings were painted red to copy the colour of red brick stone houses in Holland. Apparently, the Dutch painted the buildings red to remind them of their homeland. However, this theory is flawed because it was the British, and not the Dutch, who painted the buildings red.

Another theory was that the British wanted to differentiate British built houses from the old Dutch houses. Therefore, the British painted the old Dutch buildings red. However, there were other old Dutch buildings in Malacca that were not painted red by the British.

Most amusingly, it was also suggested that the red discharge from chewing sireh (betel) was constantly spat onto the white walls of the buildings by the locals in venting their hatred and contempt for the Dutch. Later, the British simply decided to cover it up with red paint. A witty tale probably perpetuated by anti-Dutch propaganda and contrived by nationalistic British colonials.

A more plausible reason given was maybe due to the lack of maintenance, the red laterite stone used to build the Stadthuys showed through the whitewashed plastering. Also, perhaps heavy tropical rain often splashed the red soil up the white walls. So, the British decided to paint it all red to save maintenance costs.

There are also tales of secret pathways and tunnels that were suppose to serve as strategic hidden entry and exit points in the building. 

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The famous Malacca-born Malay scholar and teacher, Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir, who as a young man worked as a scribe for Sir Stanford Raffles in Malacca, wrote in his historically acclaimed autobiography that there was a tunnel that ran through St. Paul’s hill into the Stadthuys. Abdullah also remarked that the building had a door which gave direct access to the Malacca river, located about 200 metres away. It was thought that the river exit provided the governor with an escape route out of the fortified town, in case there was trouble.

Although the rumours of secret tunnels have perpetuated in Malacca throughout the generations, these stories have never been substantiated. Dutch conservation architect, Laurens Vis, in his thorough investigation of the Stadthuys in the 1980s found no evidence of any secret tunnels or hidden pathways. But maybe the building still closely guards its age-old secrets?

Today, the Stadthuys is Malacca’s premier museum, welcoming over 48,000 visitors annually. However, it now goes by the name of Museum of Ethnography and it is used for displaying bits and pieces of the different eras of Malacca’s colourful history and the culture of its people.

Unfortunately, the museum provides no information on the architectural layout, historical function and past activities of the Stadthuys itself. The only feature that gives a somewhat true representation of the history of the building is the governor’s room, a single room that attempts to recreate the atmosphere of how it was during Dutch times there.

(Dennis De Witt is a Dutch Eurasian from Malacca who as a hobby studies the history of Dutch influence in Malaysia and the surrounding region. He is currently the Project Co-ordinator of the Malaysian Dutch Descendants Project, a community effort working to bring together the forgotten Dutch descendants in Malaysia. For further information, please visit www.dutchmalaysia.net)

Whilst I was delighted to be able to see the local Melakian market in full swing on the day we visited, the one downside was that it made getting decent photos of the Stadthuys very difficult indeed. In fact I ended up with more Market than Stadthuys… also probably because of the presence of the market, the front entrance area was rather restricted in space so there were people everywhere, taking photos, coming out, waiting to go in, and my photos didn’t come out well at all.  We also saw the queue and knew immediately that there would be no hope of even a super quick tour on our tight schedule… but yet another reason to return one day for a longer stay and a closer look.

A Surprise That Almost Takes the Wind Out of Our Sails…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

After we passed on foot under the gaze of the fearsome dragon that confronted us then we entered the city, we then had to cross a river and a bridge to complete the short distance to Dutch Square.

Now we have a chance to check out something that made Himself and I burst out laughing as we got a fleeting glance of it  from the coach on the way into town, actually we should have been at least a little prepared for what we had seen: First, Dutch Square isn’t called Dutch Square for nothing… The Dutch were in control of Melaka from 1641  until 1825  so it was fairly certain that there would probably be influences of some sort left behind.

Secondly, on this trip to New Zealand we have had an uncanny habit of stumbling across things with an almost kitch-more-Dutch-than-the-Dutch flavour, everything from bakeries to a very decent sized windmill in the small New Zealand town of Foxton.

So when Himself and I sat in the coach and suddenly saw a very Dutch looking windmill by the side of the road we burst out laughing.  It sits between the busy road and the river and is nestled into an ornamental garden.

Immediately it’s clear that it’s a complete tourist magnet, in fact getting photos of it is harder than I imagined,  if you stand on the pavement next to it you can’t get much of it in the photo:  if you stand as far back as you can on the pavement  it’s not much better: you are perilously close to the traffic and people keep walking in front of you, if you stand on the other side of the road you can get it into your photo but along with supplemental extras that consist of  trishaws, cars and motorcycles going past on the busy road, not to mention the almost constant stream of tourists having their portraits taken in front of it.

I waited patiently for multiple couples taking the obligatory “her-with-windmill” and then changing places to photograph  ”him-with-windmill” and if there was a friend in tow, and possible extra “him-plus-her-with-windmill”, then there were larger family groups, parents taking photos of their kids by it and even what looked like an entire tour party group shot.

Himself and the kids had gone off with Velveteen to search out a joke rubber cow as a gift for her Mother at the nearby Market by the Stadhuijs (Town Hall). Velveteen’s family have a wonderful tradition of doing joke gifts for Birthdays and her Mother already has (and loves) the joke rubber chicken ! (yes, they found what they were looking for too!)

Since I’m walking slower and stopping to take photos, they have gone ahead and I’ll meet up with them a short while.

This certainly doesn’t look anything like a working windmill, it’s too small to mill flour (yes they do have mills this small in the Netherlands, usually found in farmers fields next to a canal and they are just very basic water pumps) but the Dutch ones this size are generally far more plain than this one so I suspect that this one is not so old and is here as a tourist attraction to complete the  Dutch Square’s  ”Dutch flavour”.

It seems ironic that we Dutchies when we go abroad still can’t escape the windmills, not even in the Southern Hemisphere or in Asia… oh well, we’ll just have a laugh and not let it take the wind out of our sails.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The river from the bridge…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

More Luck Than You Can Shake a Stick At…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

In a continuation of  my previous day’s posts, we are visiting the Cheng Hoon Teng temple in Melaka, Malaysia.

Whilst we take a quiet look inside people come in to pray and leave offerings, then I hear a clattering noise and my attention is drawn to a young lady kneeling in a prayer stool with a canister in her hands.

Our guide explains that the canister contains ”lucky sticks”, also known as Guanyin sticks and they are used to tell someone’s fortune.

I think I managed to follow the explanation correctly,  but my understanding was that you are to shake the canister vigorously and then let one of the sticks fall out, there is detailed chinese writing on the stick and this is your “fortune”.

Accompanying the sticks are two pieces of red painted wood shaped like the two halves of a bean, one side of each of them is mostly flat, the other is rounded and when these are thrown down together there are three possible outcomes.

The first outcome is that they each land flat side up, the second is that one lands flat side up and the other lands rounded side up and lastly they could both land rounded side upwards.

If I understand correctly,  then the person wishing to know their fortune throws the beans three times and if they land one rounded and one flat side up three times in a row then it’s a confirmation that the lucky stick drawn is indeed the correct one.

If the three throws do not confirm that the lucky stick is correct, then the canister is shaken again and another stick is drawn  and the process is repeated  until the “beans” confirm that the correct stick has been drawn.

On the table is a folder of at least 40 pages in plastic, which depict at the top a drawing of the symbols on each of the sticks and below (in this instance in English) a translation of the meaning of all the symbols depicted.

I photographed on the of the pages of the book with the explanation but between the shine on the plastic and the low light inside the temple,  the photo did not come out particularly clearly so I’ll repeat the text here:

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

GUO ZI YI

When the sunrise the sky become clear
Bright and pure shines the world
The future leads to a great path
All matters become clear and safe and luck prevails

EXPLANATION

Successful in all endeavor
Good time to seek wealth, you’ll be physically wonderful
Have merit, fame and glory
Marriage will be matched and successful
Safe and peaceful in the household
Safe in all your journeys
Pregnant give birth to boy
Feng Shui excellent
Worry not about illness, but health at risk during old ages

I don’t know which stick the young lady drew, but she seemed happy enough with the results.

One of the tourists in our party, also a young lady, then proceeded to start the process of trying to find her fortune which started off ok, but in the end it was taking so long that everyone was standing around for ages waiting for her to finish and it was clear from the tour guide lady’s face that she was not best pleased by the hold-up in the schedule.

I think the entire group ended up waiting for more than twenty minutes by the exit gate before the young lady came hurriedly out of the temple with a grin on her face, apparently her fortune had been favourable too.

Stupidly I didn’t read the explanations on the other pages in the book (other people crowded in to read the open page that I had photographed)  so I have no idea if they were all  favourable or not… Who knows?

I’m not personally into fortune telling,  horoscopes or anything like this but it was very clear that these people took it quite seriously, so I suppose each to his own. If this is your thing, then shake those sticks and good luck!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

One Final Look Around…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I have an entire folder of photographs showing damage, demolition or vacant plots. Too many for right here right now.

Only time will tell how things are going to pan out in Christchurch:  how much will be rebuilt and where.

In the meantime residents of the city live with their experiences of the quakes, damaged homes, damaged work places and general infrastructure.

It’s the simple things that people find most frustrating:  for instance my Father used to have a supermarket in his neighbourhood, it was damaged beyond repair and so  it’s been demolished and hopefully it will be rebuilt soon.

In the meantime he has to travel  around closed and damaged streets to supermarkets in other neighbourhoods to do his grocery shopping and it’s usually crowded because everyone else is doing the same, sometimes people get angry and frustrated in the supermarket: … the out-workings of stress.

If a small aftershock hits when he’s inside the supermarket across town then often terrified children start screaming and if the shock is big enough customers are immediately evacuated and the building closed until an inspection can be done, regardless of wither or nor he managed to get his veggies, milk and bread.

It’s how things should be for public safety of course, but it doesn’t make for easy or stress-free day to day living.

Friends said when the big quakes of September 2010 and February 2011 hit,  the ground shook so hard they had trouble standing upright,  during the Feb quake one friend tried to hang onto a wall but it was moving back and forth so much that that wasn’t really possible either, she and a work colleague were close enough to each other to brace themselves against each other whilst the shop contents fell around them.

We own a house in the city,  in Papanui and  we and our tenants were very lucky, there was no liquefaction on our property but there was plenty just a few houses further down the street. There but for the grace of God go we.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Most of our roof tiles are cracked, the chimney is gone and there are more cracks than I care to count in the stone exterior cladding… insurance will pay to have the entire house re-clad and there is a very long list of small repair jobs  but fortunately nothing major and the place is perfectly habitable.  (emergency work to keep the roof watertight was done  immediately).

The steps to the back door have larger cracks, we got off very lightly (after an initial scare that one series of cracks might have been an indication of very serious structural damage to the foundations… we consulted an engineer and luckily this turned out to be just more on the list of lesser damage).

I wonder what will happen to the clock tower in the old railway station building on Moorhouse Avenue (the station’s long since been converted into a multiplex picture theatre but the building is another of the cities landmarks)

What will happen to the churches who’s steeples stand forlornly on the ground next to the remains of the towers?  Or the Old Book Exchange building?

Since the sign by Scorpio Books in the central city warns of extreme danger I don’t hold out any hope that this building will still be here next time I step off the plane. It too used to be a favourite haunt.

We are about to leave Christchurch and New Zealand… and return to the Netherlands where our kids won’t have to fear that the ground is about to let rip without warning beneath them. Little Mr. especially is delighted to be heading to the airport.

…One final look around…  Church, Harewood Road, Bishopdale…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Church,  Main North Road, Papanui…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The Boulevard restaurant (building at 78 Hereford Street)  in the central city…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Scorpio’s  right across the road…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The  Book Exchange…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Sydenham: What’s Left, What Will Go, What’s Gone and What Will Rise in It’s Place.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

People ask me why so many buildings in Christchurch are so badly damaged that they can no longer be repaired:  my answer is that people can only make a building as safe as  they possibly can with the available technology of the day, and that expecting the buildings to stay intact when a large earthquake hits is really too much to ask: better we just have to require that they stay up long enough for people to be evacuated safely.

That so many buildings managed to stay upright in their extremely broken states can be counted as a kind of “success” i.e. at least the death toll wasn’t  in the thousands or tens of thousands as it might well have been without a decent building code and solid engineering.

Sadly the damage that many buildings sustained means that controlled implosions to bring them down aren’t possible, because controlled implosions necessitate cutting support columns and planting the explosives in strategic places,  something only possible if the structure is not in an already weakened state.

Add to that mix a daily dose of aftershocks and it’s clear that the “nibbler method” where buildings are slowly dismantled from the top down by crane,  is the only way, no matter how slow or tedious that method is.

In Sydenham lots of buildings suffered irreparable damage and are now gone…

Today’s post is one that wonders about the fate of Sydenham… what’s left, what will go, what’s gone and what will rise in it’s place. Let’s take a look…

Top photo is on the left hand side of the street of the third photo.

(photograph © Thanks Google Street View)

(photograph © Thanks Google Street View)

The following building used to be famous, not for the building itself but for what used to be on top of it… a mega huge fibreglass Kiwi, icon and logo of the Kiwi bacon company (Sadly the fiberglass Kiwi has been gone for years, so it’s not on the  Google street view image)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Thanks Google Street View)

…a little further down the road this mural has been added to a back wall of one of the remaining rear buildings….

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

looking (south) back at the next block…

(photograph © Thanks Google Street View)

and one further….

(photograph © Thanks Google Street View)

(photograph © Thanks Google Street View)

(photograph © Thanks Google Street View)

(photograph © Thanks Google Street View)

(photograph © Thanks Google Street View)

(photograph © Thanks Google Street View)

Opposite Sydenham Bakery…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

and a little way down the road…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

And pretty much the entire Lane Walker Rudkin “complex”of buildings… before: (yes, almost all of them)

(photograph © Thanks Google Street View)

Now….

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

And all around more of the same…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Cramner Courts: The Wrecking Ball Becomes a Hot Potato…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Wow, it seems that a series of posts I had lined up for this week are being posted by chance amid ongoing turmoil concerning them almost as we speak (or is that as I wrote, no  as you read? ).

I didn’t know too much about the Cramner Courts buildings  except it used to be called the “Normal School” (and I always wondered if that meant somehow that all other schools were abnormal) until I checked out the web pages of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust  (link below) and found the following explanation.

I’ve edited it a little for brevity so if you’d like to read the full account  please just click on the link provided.

“Today’s Cranmer Court was originally built to house Christchurch Normal School, which opened in 1876.

‘Normal’ or ‘model’ schools are schools that provide teacher trainees with the opportunity to observe teachers and classes in action in a normal school environment. Christchurch Normal School was the first of this type in Canterbury, opening just after one in Otago.

The Canterbury Board of Education held an architectural competition in 1873 for designs for Christchurch Normal School. Twelve entries were received and the one submitted by the architect Samuel C. Farr (1827-1918), was selected.  

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Farr’s Christchurch Normal School was built in stone from the Halswell quarry with Oamaru stone dressings. It was designed with two wings forming an ‘L’ shape, one for boys and one for girls, and a distinctive octagonal room at the corner of the ‘L’ with an intricate wooden vaulted ceiling.

The octagonal room was originally intended to house a book depot, but by the time the building was completed this idea had been abandoned.

When the normal school function was transferred to Elmwood School in 1954, this building became the centre for the Post-Primary Department of the Christchurch Teachers’ College.

In 1970 the teachers’ college moved to the suburb of Ilam and the building remained vacant until a developer bought it in 1981 and turned it into a group of luxury apartments and a restaurant. 

This building is significant as one of the earliest normal schools in New Zealand, and as a fine example of Gothic Revival architecture, which is a distinctive feature of Christchurch. Debates in 1969-1970 over the building’s fate show that it is held in high public esteem. It forms an important part of the townscape of Cranmer Square. 

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

1970-1981 – The building lay vacant and neglected.

A group of Christchurch citizens (lead by the Civic Trust) lobbied for the retention of the building and for its adaptive reuse arguing that it was more economically feasible to convert the existing building than to demolish and rebuild.

 1981- The building was purchased by a development company for conversion into 22 residential apartments with 15 new town houses to be built on vacant land to the north. Street facades and the roofline were preserved and the ventilators and one tower reinstated.

Interiors were stripped out and dormer windows added to the roof. The octagonal room, which formerly served as the headmaster’s office on the southwest corner, was converted to a restaurant. The complex was renamed Cranmer Courts.”

This building appears to have become a political football… or hot potato depending on how you look at it.

Although it’s privately owned everyone from almost A-Z appears to have their fingers in the decision making pie  on what should be done with it, how it can be saved (or not) but in true political style the issue of exactly where the cash is coming from in order to carry out these dreams and ideals is hazy, dare I say it, even so far non-existent in sums large enough to be serious. (although this situation could change yet again)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The saga so far: Australian investors were prepared to inject cash and save it,  they signed up to the contract of due diligence that would se the facade of the building saved.  Then they pulled then pulled out at the 11th hour, almost immediately, with no cash lined up on the doorstep it was deemed unsafe by CERA , or possibly the owners (depending on which of the many articles you read) and the bulldozers moved in almost before the  doomed contract hit the bottom of the rubbish bin. The contractors were then halted by emergency injunction as a local city counciler stepped whipping up a storm of debate bigger than the rubble dust that was being generated on site.

In yet another instance of opaque ” transparency” in the  life of a historic Christchurch building it’s hard to see what’s really going on here.

By all means, try and halt demolition whilst another investor is found to redeem it at great cost.

But haven’t the owners tried that already ? and didn’t they fail? Have all options already been exhausted ?

It’s a really tough one, and I really don’t know all the facts so I’ll play devil’s advocate a little: On one hand the building has been standing with substantial damage for over two years now, so just how long should the owners be expected to wait ?… the building is like a patient on life support, either operate to fix it or let it die, but this catatonic limbo can’t be expected to go on forever.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

But are the owners really trying hard enough to find investors will are prepared to undertake the extensive surgery the building needs?  or is CERA perhaps guilty of using their steamroller tactics again?

As for the City councillor  Is this really a serious 11th hour reprieve or just political point harvesting  to be used at the next election? can you really have a say when you don’t have the funds to put your money where your mouth is?

Making demands when other people are picking up the bill is easy… putting your hand into your own pocket is not… if the building is so important, the question that begs asking is “has the Council been busy fundraising for the last two years so that they can step in?”

The answer is probably a mixture of all of this… a pinch of every argument that now makes a rather explosive mix that’s hit the headlines in a dramatic fashion. Of course I’d like to see this building saved,  but hey reality is that my piggy-bank isn’t even coming within light-years of  covering this account so who am I to judge?

Whilst I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a favourably outcome for Cramner Courts I’ll readily admit it’s a sticky situation, apparently getting messier by the minute… the bulldozer engines are still warm and the very real dust hasn’t settled by a long shot… it will be interesting to see which way the wrecking ball ends up swinging on this one.

…and a post script: I think this white building opposite Cramner Courts is called Chateau Blanc from the Clarion Collection Hotel chain and it took some damage too… which I think is being repaired.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

http://www.historic.org.nz/TheRegister/RegisterSearch/RegisterResults.aspx?RID=1872

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-2011/7781487/New-bids-to-save-Cranmer-Courts

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/christchurch-earthquake/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502981&objectid=10838514

(photograph © Thanks to Google Street View)

(photograph © Thanks to Google Street View)

(photograph © Thanks to Google Street View)

(photograph © Thanks to Google Street View)

(photograph © Thanks to Google Street View)

(photograph © Thanks to Google Street View)

It’s Not Necessarily What’s in The Photograph That’s Worrying… It’s What’s Not.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

This post is a continuation of the one I made yesterday… because I spied something that piqued my curiosity.

There’s a relatively unassuming building in Hereford Street, Christchurch that stands next to Shand’s Emporium and its called the Royal Insurance building.  On the ground floor at street level there are four equal sized arches that house three windows and a doorway, followed on floors two to four by rows of four large bay windows on each level.

What’s seized my attention are two things, First is the unmissable  massive ironwork bracing that appears to be holding up the front face of the building, and second is the fact that the building is tucked so close in to Shand’s Emporium that it even appears to be dovetailed into the recess beneath the Shand’s Emporium roof!

That’s a very “close relationship” indeed so needless to say I was interested to find out more about this building.

Sadly I drew almost a total blank on my research on this one,  the only mention is I could find was that a company called “Royal Insurance” was  indeed active in Hereford Street Christchurch from about the 1860′s onwards, thus making it one of the cities founding stone buildings… but details about how long it stayed as an Insurance company and when it ceased to be so and went on to other things appear to be absent (or more probably, the information is available somewhere in a place like the Christchurch City Council archives).

Still, background information or not, I hoped that whoever had gone to such a great effort to support this building, would be back to repair it at a later date.

As is my custom, I usually start sorting travel photographs and using my diary notes a week or two before the post is published… because often I need to fill in the gaps and provide names, dates and finish my research on the topic before I can post it and as you can imagine with work, health and family life, not everything can done quickly.

The text up until this point, I had written ready for posting, so imagine my horror when I ran across an on-line newspaper article yesterday here:  http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/7575542/Good-home-wanted-for-Shands-Emporium

It’s not just the sad shape of the little Shand’s Emporium building that’s left me speechless  ….it’s  also the very prominent gap on the left side of the newspaper photograph where the Royal Insurance building should  be standing that makes my heart sink.

I’m posting these photographs of the Royal Insurance building anyway…  since photographs apparently,  are all that’s left.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Thanks to Google Street View)

(photograph © Thanks to Google Street View)