Churches – U R B E X C E N T R A L

Acts Of The Apostles | Erskine College 1905-2012 | A Retrospective

Welcome to the complete video document of Gunner’s adventures with Urbex Central at Erskine College in Island Bay, Wellington, New Zealand, in the years after its closure in 2012.

Part One: Rage Against The Dying Of The Light [0:00]

Several years ago now, we visited Erskine College at night. We found our way into its pristine Gothic chapel, which was added to the college in 1929-30. It had at that time recently been operating as a wedding venue before being declared earthquake prone. We lit up the chapel once more, first with candlelight and then with halogen flood lights powered by a petrol generator. Over the course of the next three years we revisited the college and documented it as best we could, while the destruction from vandalism seemed to be advancing mercilessly towards the chapel. Today most of the college has been demolished to make way for a housing development, while the chapel remains, albeit emptied out and boarded up. We’re happy to bring you the chapel as we first found it.

Part Two: Ascension Day [5:59]

In the year following our first visit to Erskine College, tagging had visibly advanced to the choir loft at the back of the chapel. Hung high out of reach of taggers’ sharpies are the stations of the cross, the closest of which to us depict scenes where Jesus is “aided by Simon” and “stripped of his garments”. By this time Urbex Central had evolved into a highly active and — more importantly — a warm collective, as evident in moments of playful cooperation captured on video. Thankfully one of the organs was foot-powered.

Part Three: Walk Towards The Falling Water, I Will Meet You There [10:36]

In 2009, a poetic arts student wrote in chalk on top of a set of wooden shelves: “Walk towards the falling water / I will meet you there”. Construction began on Erskine College, a former Catholic girls’ school, in 1905, with a chapel added in 1929-30. In 1985 it ceased operating as a college, and in 1992 a trust was formed and given responsibility for its heritage protection. Between 1997 and 2009 it was tenanted by a tertiary art school. The chapel then reopened as a wedding venue until being declared earthquake prone in 2012.

Part Four: Acts of The Apostle [17:47]

Another year has passed, and once more the chapel is inviting exploration. We know the space well enough now to relax in the moment and capture details hitherto unseen. With explorers almost entirely absent from the frame, the gentle zooming in and out of the camera seems to capture an aspect of human experience deeper than adventure: our cyclical approaching and withdrawing from faith and/or artistry of many kinds as we navigate our lives.

May 26, 2021June 13, 2021 by urbexcentral

Church : Time

Exploring the abandoned former French colonial era church on Bokor Mountain in Cambodia recently. In 1978 the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, toppling the murderous Khmer Rouge in a matter of weeks. There was however a stalemate for a time on Bokor (and other locations) as the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge battled it out- fighting between the church and nearby casino. In recent years the church has had occasional use- it’s first in nearly four decades. “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen…”

April 30, 2016April 30, 2016 by urbexcentral

New Zealand’s forgotten miniature village

In a small rural town of North Island New Zealand lives this little forgotten wall and village.

Once a labour of love for the pastor of the church who has now passed on, this little village and its figurines continue to decay without repair or anyone to take care of them.

February 25, 2016 by urbexcentral

Nokor

Not your usual urbex video, but exploring ruins nonetheless. This is the strange fusion temple complex of Banteay Prey Nokor in Cambodia that we visited late last year. Situated in countryside near the town of Kompong Cham, the original 11th century Mahayana Buddhist shrine has been added onto over the centuries and incorporated into a bewildering and sprawling complex of wat’s and stupa’s. Apart from a security guard and a couple of monks we had the place to ourselves. More to come from Cambodia soon…

February 11, 2016February 11, 2016 by urbexcentral

Cathedral

Images of the exterior of Christchurch Cathedral from a couple of months ago. The Cathedral was badly damaged in the February 22nd 2011 earthquake (and other aftershocks) that devastated New Zealand’s third largest city. It’s a surreal experience, the centre around Cathedral Square is mostly unrecognizable, apart from the iconic Christchurch Cathedral.

The Anglican Cathedral was built between 1864 and 1904 in the centre of the city, surrounded by Cathedral Square. It became the cathedral seat of the Bishop of Christchurch in the New Zealand tikanga of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

Repeated earthquakes have damaged the building (mostly the spire) in the course of its history: in 1881, 1888, 1901, 1922, and September 2010. The February 2011 Christchurch earthquake destroyed the spire and part of the tower, and severely damaged the structure of the remaining building. The remainder of the tower was demolished in March 2012. The west wall suffered collapses in the June 2011 earthquake and the December 2011 quake due to a steel structure – intended to stabilize the rose window – pushing it in.

The Anglican Church has decided to demolish the building and replace it with a new structure – a decision which has become controversial in post-quake Christchurch. Various groups have opposed the Church’s intentions, with actions including taking a case to court. As of January 2015 the judgements have mostly been in favour of the Church, with one more judgement pending. No demolition has occurred since the removal of the tower in early 2012.

There has been opposition to demolition, with heritage groups including the UNESCO World Heritage Centre opposing the action. A local character, the Wizard of New Zealand, made protests calling for the cathedral to be saved. Kit Miyamoto, an American-based structural engineer and expert in earthquake rebuilding, inspected the cathedral after the September 2010 quake. He cited his experience in stating that restoring and strengthening of the building was both “feasible and affordable”.

In April 2012, a group of engineers from the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering launched a petition seeking support of 100 colleagues to stop the demolition. They claimed that legal action was also a possibility. In the same month the Restore Christchurch Cathedral Group was formed and sought signatures for a petition to save the cathedral.

June 24, 2015 by urbexcentral

Gross Chapel

Getting all religious at an historic abandoned chapel recently…

March 29, 2015March 29, 2015 by urbexcentral

Wellington’s Abandoned Chapel

It has been a long time since urbexcentral visited this beauty, a famous abandoned icon of our city.
While the rest of the buildings fall further into despair the chapel remains mainly untouched, preserved and safe from graffiti for now – let’s hope it stays that way.

The Chapel Interior

The Chapel

Organ

Religious Staircase

Function Room

Mirror Image

Outside

Chapel Posing

November 18, 2014November 18, 2014 by urbexcentral

Tenkaen – Abandoned China Theme Park – Japan

This Chinese theme park was open from 1992 to 1999 and now sits abandoned and neglected after closing due to high entrance fees and low attendance numbers.

Thanks to a new contributor for these photos.

September 2, 2014September 2, 2014 by urbexcentral

Cathedral of the damned

Planning a trip to Christchurch and meeting an overseas urbexer named WildBoyz from the United Kingdom was always an exciting prospect, teaming up with an experienced explorer from overseas with a load of locations in England already under his belt! Little did I know how many amazing locations we would end up finding.
Exploring Christchurch was both exciting and emotional, a city I used to come on holiday to, now vastly changed by the devastating earthquake of February 2011.

One of the most breathtaking explores we did on this trip involved coming across this grand cathedral, opened in 1905 it had association with the Vatican and was considered to be the finest renaissance-style building in New Zealand. After the February earthquakes two of the bell towers on the front of the cathedral collapsed and have since been removed and stored in a secret location by the priests, some of the stone blocks that came down have also been removed and numbered for later restoration. The future of the cathedral is unknown and the cosmetic and structural damage of the building is intense, there are plans to demolish the building while leaving some of the facade as a remembrance.

Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament

August 28, 2014January 28, 2015 by urbexcentral

The keys of Jesus

This unique Spanish-style building was its city’s first three-storey building and opened in the late 1800’s. Up until recently this facility housed thousands of Christian girls devoted to God; it now stands empty and awaits the wrecking ball.

Girls School

February 3, 2014February 8, 2014 by urbexcentral

The Monastery

Aswan, Egypt, Dec 2005: After exploring some ancient tombs on the westbank of the Nile (featured here)- we decided to walk across the open desert to the ruined 7th century monastery of St. Simeon. It didn’t look far, but in the heat and harsh enviroment of the desert, it proved to be a bit more challenging. The Monastery of St Simeon dates back to the 7th century- it survived as a Christian stronghold of southern Egypt up until being sacked by Saladin in 1173 and abandoned. No real thorough archaeological attention has ever been paid to this ancient site. It was examined and published by Grossmann in 1985, and in 1998 by the inspectors of the antiquities- but still very little is known about this ancient monastery fortress.

August 9, 2013August 9, 2013 by urbexcentral

Ghost Town

Kayaköy, Turkey, Oct 2005: This was my second visit to Kayaköy, the ghost town near Fetiye in South Western Turkey. Kayaköy consists of hundreds of rundown but still mostly intact Greek-style houses and churches, which orignally hosted a population of approximately 2000 people. Built on the ancient Greek village of Carmylessus, it existed up until the population exchanges of 1922/3. Anatolian Greeks had lived here since antiquity. After the invading Greek’s defeat to Turkey in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), Greece had no choice but to sign the demands of the victorious Turks in Lausanne, Switzerland. More than 1.5 million Asia Minor Greeks were forced out of Turkey, and at least half a million Turkish muslims from Greece.