25 July, 2013

Heritage Grant boosts St Saviour’s relocation project

St Saviour’s Chapel is one step closer to returning to the Lyttelton community with the Council approving a Heritage Incentive Grant of $143,431 today.

Natural Environment and Heritage Manager Helen Beaumont says the Council was very glad to contribute to a project which provides a particularly special result for the Lyttelton community following the Canterbury earthquakes.

“The return of this chapel from Park Terrace to Lyttelton, which as a community has experienced enormous loss of heritage churches and secular buildings, is a wonderful example of how the Council can help communities to incorporate heritage as part of the rebuild and recovery, restoring links to the past.”

St Saviour’s Chapel was erected in West Lyttelton in 1885. In 1975 the chapel was relocated within the grounds of the Cathedral Grammar School on the corner of Park Terrace and Chester Street West.

In 2012 the Cathedral Grammar School Trust Board advised the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch that St Saviour’s Chapel was no longer large enough for the school. The school offered the chapel for use elsewhere.

The Anglican Chapel Property Trust decided that it would return the chapel to Lyttelton. The site chosen in Lyttelton is that of the former Holy Trinity Chapel, at 17 Winchester Street. Holy Trinity Chapel was significantly damaged following the September 2010 and February 2011 earthquakes and collapsed as a result of the earthquake on 13 June 2012.

The grant will help cover the cost of works for deconstruction, transportation to Lyttelton, establishment on the new site including new foundations, restoring and attaching the porch from the Holy Trinity Chapel, restoration and incorporation of stained glass, and repair and reinstatement of the reredos. (An ornamental screen covering the wall at the back of an altar.)

The building is listed in the Christchurch City Plan as Group 2. The building is registered Category 2 by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Pouhere Taonga.

www.ccc.govt.nz/heritage

Fact sheet- Heritage Incentive Grants and St Saviour’s Chapel

Heritage Incentive Grants
The Christchurch City Council’s Heritage Incentive Grants Fund provides financial assistance to owners of heritage items listed in the City Plan and Banks Peninsula District Plan.
• Owners of listed heritage items can apply for grants of up to 50 per cent towards the following conservation-related works
• Conservation of exterior and interior heritage fabric (including earthquake repairs)
• Seismic strengthening, fire and access upgrades to meet Building Code requirements
• Professional fees e.g., architects, engineers & quantity surveyors
• Reimbursement of non-notified Council resource consent fees

Original construction of St Saviour’s Chapel
• St Saviour’s Chapel was erected in West Lyttelton in 1885 but is currently located within the grounds of the Cathedral Grammar School on the corner of Park Terrace and Chester Street West.
• The Chapel was made possible by an endowment from Archdeacon Benjamin and was built on the corner of Brittan Terrace and Simeon Quay.
• Woolley Dudley provided funds to assist with the building of a Chapel and the provision of a minister specifically for the people of West Lyttelton and visiting seamen.
• Christchurch architect Cyril Mountfort, the son of renowned Canterbury architect, Benjamin Mountfort, was commissioned to design the building.
• Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the well known Antarctic explorer, and the crews of the Discovery and Terra Nova also worshipped at the Chapel.

A home in the city:
• The fortunes of St Saviour’s, as an independent parish waxed and waned until in 1975 parishioners gave the Chapel to the Christchurch Diocese.
• A new home for the building was sought and the successful applicant was the Cathedral Grammar School. The school, although founded in 1881, did not have a permanent purpose built chapel for worship.
• In 1975 St Saviour’s was dismantled and rebuilt on a site on the corner of Park Terrace and Chester Street West.
• Prior to the Canterbury earthquakes the building served as the school’s chapel.

Returning to Lyttelton:
• The site chosen in Lyttelton is that of the former Holy Trinity Chapel, at 17 Winchester Street.
• The cob and stone Chapel formerly located here was significantly damaged following the September 2010 and February 2011 earthquakes. The Chapel collapsed completely on 13 June 2012.

Architecture:
• St Saviour’s is built in the Early English Gothic Revival style. It is a board and batten building with a gabled roof and bracketed gable ends.
• The interior of the building features an open timber trussed ceiling and a timber dado.
• The original Chapel altar was removed to the chapel at Scott Base, Antarctica.

ENDS

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