The Press Building located in Cathedral Square in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

was the home of

The Press ''The Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand owned by media business Stuff Ltd. First published in 1861, the newspaper is the largest circulating daily in the South Island and publishes Monday to Saturday. One comm ...

between 1909 and February 2011. The building in

perpendicular Gothic Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-c ...

is registered with the

New Zealand Historic Places Trust Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...

as a Category I heritage item, with the registration number 302. The building suffered significant damage in the February

2011 Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the entire of the Canterbury region in the South Island, centred south-east ...

, with one staff member killed in the collapsed top floor. The building was demolished in July and August 2011.

History

The Press was founded in 1861 by James FitzGerald in order to oppose the politics of his political rival

William Sefton Moorhouse William Sefton Moorhouse ( 1825 – 15 September 1881) was a British-born New Zealand politician. He was the second Superintendent of Canterbury Province. Early life Moorhouse was born in Yorkshire, England, and baptised on 18 December 1825; th ...

. From humble beginnings in a Montreal Street cottage, the newspaper was next located in Cashel Street.

George Stead George Gatonby Stead (17 August 1841 – 29 April 1908) was a notable New Zealand grain merchant, racehorse owner and breeder, and businessman. Early life Stead was born in 1841 in London, England to George Stead and Mary Gatonby. In 1849 th ...

bought the newspaper in 1890, and in 1905 purchased a site in Cathedral Square for a new building in a location that he thought would become the town centre. The firm of

Armson, Collins and Harman Armson, Collins and Harman was an architectural firm in New Zealand. It was founded by William Barnett Armson (1832/3–1883), and after his death, became the practice of two architects who articled with him, John James Collins (1855–1933) and ...

was engaged to design the building, and John Goddard Collins designed a four-storey building in perpendicular Gothic style. The builder was

Henry Eli White Henry Eli White (21 August 1876 – 3 March 1952), also known as Harry White, was a New Zealand-born architect who is best known for the many theatres and cinemas he designed in Australia and New Zealand in the 1910s and 1920s. Many of the majo ...

. The building was constructed using

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

, one of the first in Christchurch to utilise this technique, to support the weight of the printing presses. He allowed for a distinctive tower in the south-west corner. The first edition of The Press produced in the building was published on 2 February 1909. From 1886 to the 1920s, the newspaper used

pigeon post Pigeon post is the use of homing pigeons to carry messages. Pigeons are effective as messengers due to their natural homing abilities. The pigeons are transported to a destination in cages, where they are attached with messages, then the pigeo ...

for message transfer, and the pigeon house remains on the roof of the building. The building was sold in 2008 to the Australian company Ganellen. The redevelopment plan was to build a new head office for The Press on an adjacent site in Gloucester Street, and the historic Press Building was to be refurbished as "an A-grade commercial building". The building was damaged in the

2010 Canterbury earthquake The 2010 Canterbury earthquake (also known as the Darfield earthquake) struck the South Island of New Zealand with a moment magnitude of 7.1 at on , and had a maximum perceived intensity of X (''Extreme'') on the Mercalli intensity scale. Som ...

, and the company vacated the building on 8 September 2010. The building was certified for use again. It suffered significant damage in the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake with the top floor collapsing; one employee died, several people were seriously injured and many staff were trapped in the rubble. The earthquake hit two weeks before staff were due to move into the adjacent new office building. The building was demolished in July 2011. All that was remaining by 25 July 2011 was the main entrance door with the newspaper's motto above it ("Nihil utile quod non honestum", which translates to "Nothing is useful that is not honest") and the company's crest above it. Contractors are trying to remove the crest in one piece. Following the February 2011 earthquake, the staff of ''The Press'' worked for 15 months out of a portacom village adjacent to their printing press in Harewood near the airport. They moved into their new building, adjacent to their old site, in May 2012. The first newspaper to be produced in the new premises was the 28 May 2012 edition.

Heritage listing

On 2 April 1985, the building was registered by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust as a Category I historic place, with the registration number 302. The

Lyttelton Times Building The Lyttelton Times Building, last known as Base Backpackers, in 56 Cathedral Square, Christchurch Central City, was the last headquarters of the ''Lyttelton Times'' before its demise in 1935 as the then-oldest newspaper in New Zealand. The build ...

in contemporary Chicago school architectural style is located in the same quadrant of Cathedral Square, and the two facades represent the two different newspaper styles, with The Press being regarded as the more conservative newspaper. The building is a notable example of the firm of Armson, Collins and Harman. The use of reinforced concrete is one of the earliest examples in Christchurch.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Press Building, The Buildings and structures completed in 1909 NZHPT Category I listings in Canterbury, New Zealand Buildings and structures in Christchurch Cathedral Square, Christchurch Buildings and structures demolished as a result of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake Buildings and structures demolished in 2011 Newspaper headquarters 1900s architecture in New Zealand