Montreal meanderings... from Dux to Knox (Part 1)

Last week I had an hour between appointments on opposite sides of the inner city wasteland. So here's another photographic tiki tour of inner city Shakeytown: a trip down Montreal Street (then onto Victoria St), past some notable landmarks... with a few empty lots & quirky sights thrown in for good measure. With so many photos, I've numbered the locations on this here map :)

My first stop was the Dux de Lux (1), and the colourful ducks that are once again decorating the fence.

Things are looking up for one of C-city's favourite watering holes... talks are being held which will hopefully see repairs starting soon.

This is the window of the upstairs function room, where every year we gather to farewell the latest batch of departing NZBS students. Great stories, good laughs, fantastic pizzas! Wonder if we'll be back there at the end of this year to watch yet another group head off to the wild & wonderful workplace?

Across the road from the Dux is where St Elmo's Court used to stand... quite possibly the cutest office block in town, now just another empty lot (2).

Reminders of searches past are scattered throughout the city. Reading them is like deciphering code - which team, what date, search results, safe or NoGo.

Next to the empty lot is the new city council premises... currently closed for repairs.

My next stopping point was Cranmer Square, home to some stately buildings and newer apartment blocks... although the resident population seems to be a lot lower these days. This empty lot (3) was the original Chch Girls' High School.

As I walked along Armagh St towards Hagley Park, I had one of those "Oh no!" moments... You may recognise the feeling you get when you see the devastation caused to a favourite building - even if you didn't realise until that moment just how much you enjoyed having it as part of your landscape. For me, it was the cute little old Christchurch Bridge Club (4).

I've walked past this entrance so many times, especially when on the way to events in Hagley Park. I hadn't given it much thought - my mind had it filed as a cute wooden building.... except that only part of the building was wooden...

The much newer apartment building (5) next door didn't fare so well either, providing yet another example of the broken window/flapping blind combination.

There are still piles of liquefaction lying around... they aren't as important as weeds in the Red Zone flower beds apparently.

On the corner of Peterborough & Durham, the former normal school (6) that was converted to apartments in the 1980s.

These inner city neighbourhoods were filled with cute little old buildings (7)

On closer inspection, they don't look quite so cute any more...

Another verdict writ large in neon yellow (8)

With some bolder colours on the front fence...

Toppled terracotta pots have yet to be righted at this abandoned apartment building (9)

The footpath in front is littered with bricks and leaves, all of similar hue...

At the corner of Armagh & Montreal is one of many older buildings in the area that until recently provided accommodation. This one (10) had been undergoing repairs to damage sustained in September...

Bricks & earthquake vs scaffolding...

Still having a reasonable amount of time to spare, I wandered down Armagh St towards the inner city so I could see the damage sustained to the Provincial Chambers, and a couple of leaning buildings I'd heard about. Along the way there were other accommodation providers (11) out of action for rather obvious reasons...

This one came with a warning label for anyone thinking of demolition...

Being of newer construction is no guarantee of safety... especially if you're surrounded by older, partially collapsed buildings, in an area that's been hit by liquefaction...

And that's where I'm going to leave part one... it's getting late and the story took a little longer than I'd anticipated. I'll have to resume the tale & tiki tour tomorrow...