The building frontage (Picture - Rouyden Lake)
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8.15PM: Christchurch's gay nightclub, Cruz, which came through this morning's massive earthquake comparatively unscathed, has been damaged in an aftershock.
The earthquake, registering 7.1 on the Richter scale, has caused extensive damage to older buildings in the CBD, particularly the area around Lichfield Street where the city's glbt venues are located. Cruz owner Bruce Williamson says the club had closed earlier than usual this morning and he was driving home when the earthquake struck. He immediately returned to the venue to find its structure intact and damage confined to some items which had dropped to the floor.
However this afternoon one of the many aftershocks the city has been experiencing caused the edge of the masonry parapet on a taller neighbouring building to topple, sending bricks and mortar through the roof and into what Williamson describes as "the drag queen room." He says the damage does not appear to be extensive and the building appears sound.
He believes the main part of the building, which also houses Ministry nightclub, survived the quake because it had been strengthened in 1992 when he set up the venue. Cruz is in an older part of the joint venue "but its unreinforced masonry actually survived very well," says Williamson.
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