Home » Articles posted by Fergus Cunningham
New York, USA, January 2004: I arrived in New York during a mid-winter blizzard. The city was still recovering from the devastating 911 attacks, just over two years prior. It was a pretty grim time to visit and the weather didn’t help- but it was business as usual on Wall Street…
Wellington, NZ, April 2013: This former Catholic girls boarding school and convent was closed in the mid 1980′s. The buildings have been used for a variety of purposes over the years (including featuring in a couple of Peter Jackson films), but it has now been deemed unsafe and closed indefinately. Although carrying the Historic Places Trust’s highest heritage protection status, the closure due to being “Earthquake prone” has left it in a strange kind of limbo. Since my last visit a year ago, vandals have constantly broken in and smashed and tagged their way throughout the buildings. The future looks very bleak indeed for this Historic landmark…
Wellington, NZ, yesterday: This former animal testing station lies broken and abandoned after twenty odd years. Theres few clues left as to what experiments went on here- they’ve disappeared like the unfortunate animal test subjects destroyed in the incinerators.
Crete, Greece, April 2003: In Greek mythology, King Minos dwelled in a palace at Knossos where he had a labyrinth constructed in order to retain his son, the Minotaur. Knossos is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and considered Europe’s oldest city- the centre of the Minoan civilisation that flourished from approximately the 27th century to the 15th century BCE. For such a historic site, the tacky restoration of the ancient city left me feeling a bit bemused…
