One of the buildings between Cable St and Wakefield St in central Wellington, which will be demolished because of fears it may collapse in another strong earthquake.

Three Wellington City Council-owned buildings will be "quickly" demolished after inspections found they could collapse in another strong earthquake.

Two of the buildings are between Cable St and Wakefield St in the central city - a site the city council purchased as the location for its proposed new $150 million movie museum and convention centre.

The third building is the St John's Church hall in Karori, on the corner of Karori Rd and Campbell St.

ROSS GIBLIN\FAIRFAX NZ Towbar Express, on Wakefield St in central Wellington, is one of council-owned buildings that will be demolished.

Mike Mendonca​, the council's recovery programme manager, said the two central city buildings were constructed from "fragile brick, masonry and concrete".

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One was unoccupied and the other had been tenanted to Towbar Express on a short-term basis.

FAIRFAX NZ The site of Wellington's proposed convention centre and movie museum, between Cable and Wakefield streets, where two city council-owned buildings will be quickly demolished after they were damaged in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake.

Inspections over the past few days had revealed they suffered structural damage in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake on November 14 and could collapse if another strong earthquake hits, Mendonca said.

They had been targeted for demolition as part of the site clearance for the movie museum and convention centre, but the decision has been made to bring the work forward.

The buildings were fenced off on Thursday and "walk-through" shipping containers will be placed around them on Friday for public protection. Demolition preparation may start as early as next week.

LAURA DOONEY/FAIRFAX NZ Demolition of the St John's Church Hall in Karori will also be sped up after it sustained fresh earthquake damage.

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester said there would be no implications for the movie museum convention centre, and there were no concerns about the land it would be built on.

"A detailed design is being worked on at the moment and it will need to be built to 100 per cent of code. I anticipate that it will be onwards and upwards for that project."

There was no new information about other council buildings such as the Town Hall, he said.

The council's Civic Square building will remain closed while engineers continue to assess its condition after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake.

The six-storey civic administration building normally houses about 450 council staff in its public service centre and iSite visitor centre on the ground floor.

The St John's Church hall in Karori was built in the 1960s and was unoccupied when the earthquake hit.

It was damaged during the 2013 earthquakes that rattled Wellington, and was showing signs of further stress from the recent quakes, Mendonca said.

The council's medium-term intention was to demolish the building to clear the site for sale, which would help raise funds for the construction of a new Karori Community Centre.