Little of cathedral able to be saved

Earthquake-damaged Christchurch Cathedral will have to come down, but there is hope some parts of the historic building can be preserved.

The city landmark has sustained ongoing damage in the devastating quakes over the past 18 months and the outlook for it has become increasingly bleak.

Bishop Victoria Matthews, of the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch, is due to make an "important announcement" about the cathedral at 2pm today.

It is understood the extent of the damage means the building will have to be pulled down, but there are options to be considered for some parts of it to be retained for historical purposes.

Last October, it was announced a partial demolition would be carried out to allow for key artefacts and heritage items such as the cathedral organ to be retrieved. However, further large quakes on December 23 caused more serious structural damage and made access too dangerous.

Former cathedral dean Peter Beck recently said the building's future "is not looking good".

Cathedral project manager Marcus Read told Campbell Live the cathedral was "rocking herself to pieces".

Last month, Bishop Matthews said: "The cathedral is now a very dangerous building and internal access is impossible.

We are undertaking new engineering reassessments ... to determine what are the realistic options for the building's future.

"When we have a peer-reviewed assessment of the building, we will publicly share that assessment."

Built in the second half of the 19th century, the cathedral was also damaged by earthquakes in 1881, 1888 and 1901.