Gothic city
Christchurch's heart of stone
BY KIM NEWTH
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From the 1850s, many of Christchurch's grandest buildings were built in Gothic Revival style. Today, moves to protect them forever are gathering support.
Built between 1858 and 1865, the Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings are still a marvel; a jigsaw puzzle of stones carefully unified.
Designed by leading Gothic Revival architect Benjamin Mountfort, the Stone Chamber has been acknowledged as New Zealand's finest High Victorian Gothic interior. The council buildings already have an 'A' classification from the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. However, Christchurch architect Peter Beaven believes nothing short of World Heritage status is needed for Mountfort's legacy.
Inside the council buildings, long dark-timbered corridors paved with flagstones, worn by generations of passing feet, link plastered rooms and grand chambers. The two chief treasures are the Timber Chamber, where the provincial council met from 1859, and the Stone Chamber, renowned for its beautiful carving by stonemason William Brassington, its rare double-faced clock, fine stained-glass windows and its painted ceiling by commercial artist John St Quentin.
The Provincial Council Buildings continue to be well used by the city's legal fraternity, with Gerald Lascelles one of many occupying office space, up some creaky stairs and along a low passageway.
"I think people coming here, particularly offenders, are affected by the gravitas that attaches to the old stone corridors and wooden ceilings ... You can see them thinking 'I'm entering into something more serious now'."
Gerald says there's only one thing he'd change about the buildings - the cream-painted exterior downpipes on the Stone Chamber.
"Who wants to make a feature of downpipes?" he says.
Mountfort, the leading church architect of his day, is responsible for many of Christchurch's historic public buildings. His designs emulated building styles of the Middle Ages, while marrying spiritual and artistic values of the day.
Mountfort was the creative brain behind the Canterbury Museum, Canterbury College (now the Arts Centre), including the clock-tower block and the Great Hall, and Worcester St's former Trinity Church. He was also supervising architect at ChristChurch Cathedral.
The Arts Centre is at the hub of the city's cultural precinct. Originally the site of Canterbury College, it was designed in High Victorian Collegiate Gothic-style. Delays and financial difficulties meant the buildings didn't near completion until 1923, some 50 years after the first stone building - the clock tower - was completed. Architect Samuel Hurst Seager contributed the 'grand design' for two quadrangles and arcades to link the buildings.
"There are 23 Category 1 heritage buildings here on site, on almost 5 1/2 acres of land," Jennie Currie, the Arts Centre's deputy director, says.
"It's an entire central city block and one of the most significant heritage sites in the country."
*For more on our Gothic city, pick up the August issue of Avenues*
