Demolition begins on Hagley Hostel

Demolition begins on Hagley Hostel

It’s the end of an era for Hagley Hostel as initial demolition work on the earthquake damaged former nurses’ home got under way this week.

Canterbury District Health Board (DHB) Site Redevelopment Construction and Property Manager Wayne Lawson says The Canterbury DHB undertook widespread consultation about its proposed new hospital in 2010 and the requirement to demolish the hostel to make way for the new hospital was part of the proposal.

“The earthquakes have resulted in the building being badly damaged, but demolition is part of the future plan.”

Initial work includes the removal of confidential records, which will be sent for secure destruction and the recovery of some 'heritage' items. The contractor has also started the removal of timber from the west wing.

Large demolition machinery is likely to be delivered this weekend for external demolition work start on Monday (May 16) on the hostel, located beside Christchurch Women’s Hospital on Riccarton Avenues.

Canterbury DHB Nursing Director for Women’s and Children’s Michael McIlhone, says a lot of Canterbury people will have fond memories of the hostel, which was built in the 1930s as accommodation for trainee female nurses.

“The Hostel supervisors were notoriously adept at keeping the female nurses in and keeping the men out – although there was no lack of trying,” Michael says.

“Meal service was a very formal and structured process and the dining room was set out in a very hierarchal fashion with tables set aside depending on your ranking.”

It was known as the “new" hostel that was built to replace the "old" hostel, or Avon Hostel, which used to stand where the current Christchurch Hospital Emergency Department is.

Facts about Hagley Hostel:

• Hagley Hostel design work started in 1930. City council approval of the plans was obtained in March 1931 and a foundation stone was laid that month. The original design made allowance for three extra floors to be added at a later date. The completion date of the lower three floors is not certain, but it was before July 1933.

• The Napier earthquake (February 1931) provided some lessons to the construction team and some aspects of the design were altered in consequence of those lessons.

• The building is a steel framed structure and the beam/column connections were welded on site. At the time, this was a new concept used in NZ. The structural frame is surrounded in concrete (extra strength and fire resistance) and the gap between the structural frames is unfilled with masonry to form the outer walls.

• A decision was made to extend the height of the building and the architects were working on this new design in 1939. Charles Luney (a well known Christchurch contractor) was appointed to undertake the new construction work in August 1939 and the three new floors were completed by October 1941. This upper portion of the building, whilst continuing the use of the concrete encased steel frame, adopted concrete infill panels between the frames. As a consequence, the upper portion of the building is stronger than the lower portion and that is reflected in the damage suffered after the earthquake and aftershocks.

• Old documents show that in 1941 the building accommodated about 259 of the board’s 300 nurses. Nurses lived there for the length of their year training and some for a few years later after they were registered.

• It had strong links with the Preliminary School of Nursing (now known as the PDU or professional development unit) in so much as that is where the student nurses who lived in went for their morning and afternoon teas as well as their lunches.

• The dining room was also used for many nurse graduation ceremonies over the years. Once it ceased being a hostel it was utilised for office space including Maori Health and Social Workers.

• The building has suffered extensive cracking, internally and externally. The external masonry infill panels are the weaker part of the structure. The building was ‘red-stickered’ after the February earthquake and permission to demolish was received from the civil defence National Controller in March.

ENDS

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