Turret toppings

As I mentioned in my last blog, about weathervanes, I’ve spent some time recently looking up, which has brought me a new appreciation for the embellishments that have been added to Auckland’s towers and turrets, spires and steeples.

As crosses are to be found on many – though not all -- churches, flagpoles are common on all types of structures, and plain needle-like finials are often found on cupolas (like the examples at Auckland Grammar School, pictured below), I have not, for the most part, included any of them, focussing instead on the more unusual or unique forms of ornamentation.

The plain finial and flag pole on Auckland Grammar School's main building

Most of these turret toppings are purely ornamental, though I suspect some do have a purpose, as lightning rods, diverting the electrical charges of lightning strikes into the ground where they are diffused. Electricity pioneer Benjamin Franklin was the inventor of (in 1749) and a huge advocate for lightning rods, and their efficacy made them extremely popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. This advertisement from the Manawatu Standard, 10 July 1903, shows lightning rods were also popular in New Zealand and how imaginative their designs could, in fact, be.

So, let’s get on with showing you what I’ve been looking at.

Allendale House, corner of Crummer and Ponsonby Roads

On a prominent corner site in Auckland’s inner city suburb of Ponsonby stands Allendale, the large 1890s mansion of George Allen, a saddle and harness maker. This impressive local landmark has been successively a doctor's surgery, Maori girls hostel, boarding house, refuge for alcoholic men and a restaurant, and is now home to the ASB Community Trust, who restored the building after purchasing it in the 1990s.

Allendale is built in a style common for Victorian bay villas, which includes ornate wrought iron work on the verandahs, in the cresting on the roof, and on the turret, as well as the two side roof peaks. These are topped with beautiful examples of the ironworker’s craft – wonderfully sinuous and organic designs.

Allendale House

United Maori Mission Hostel, corner of Hepburn and Smith Streets, Ponsonby

The exact same design as that found on Allendale’s roof can also be found on the roof of a large private dwelling, just a couple of streets away (below, left). Built in the 1890s in the Queen Anne style and sitting on a 1259m² section, one can only imagine how grand this building must have been when first built. At one time, it functioned as St James’ Presbyterian Manse, then, in the 1940s, it became one of three hostels run by the United Maori Mission, catering for the ‘spiritual, social and material requirements’ of the young Maori people who were then moving in droves from rural New Zealand to the city (Elsdon Craig, ‘Gillies, Heppy and Shelley: The Story of Three Mission Hostels’, Te Ao Hou, no.19, August 1957).

Though it still functions as Te Kainga Aroha, a hostel for young Maori women, this once elegant old house looks rather ramshackle and unloved these days. Luckily, its wonderful roof ornament remains.

United Maori Mission Hostel (left) and St John's Methodist Church (right)

St John’s Methodist Church, Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby

Though I said above that I would not, for the most part, include churches in this post, some have roof ornaments that deserve a mention. On top of one of the small pinnacles of St John’s Methodist Church, for example, is a fine piece of wrought iron decoration (above, right), not dissimilar to the two mentioned above, though it is more angular, less organic in its lines.

St John’s also has an interesting cross on top of its spire, as you can see from the photo below, left. The church was built in 1882 in the Gothic Revival design by prominent local architect Edward Bartley (who also designed the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind Workshop building with its superb weathervane).

St Stephen’s Presbyterian Church, Jervois Road, Ponsonby

Not far from St John’s is another Gothic Revival-style church, with an interesting embellishment on top of its spire. I suspect this was once a weathervane and Auckland’s occasional wild weather has been responsible for its partial destruction in the 135 years since the church was built. I visited this church during Auckland’s annual Heritage Festival last October so you can read more about this impressive old church in an earlier blog. 

St John's Methodist (left), St Stephen's in Jervois Rd (centre) and St Stephen's, Symonds St (right)

St Stephen’s Presbyterian Church, Symonds Street, Auckland city

There’s another, even older St Stephen’s Presbyterian Church in the inner city, this one in Symonds Street. Built to last from local basalt stone between 1847 and 1850, this is Auckland’s oldest surviving church and, in keeping with its early Free Church association, it was originally more spartan in design – the Greek-style portico and prominent tower were later additions. Presbyterian churches tend to exclude explicit Christian iconography so there is no cross atop the spire, though it does still have an ornament, a spiky and angular fandangle.

Old Ponsonby fire station, Williamson Avenue, Ponsonby

Heading back to Ponsonby, we find the former Grey Lynn Borough Council Chambers and Volunteer Fire Station building which stands at the Ponsonby Road end of Williamson Avenue. This brick building, dating from 1889, was designed by architect John Mitchell, and resembles many American fire stations of the period. Its bell tower was a practical addition – the bell was rung to alert the volunteer firefighters when fires broke out in the surrounding suburb, though this is actually a replacement tower, reinstated when the building was restored in 1985. It is likely, then, that the adornment on top of its tower is a modern addition but it fits well with the building’s heritage status.

Civic Theatre, Queen Street, Auckland city

Last but not least in this tour around Auckland city’s turret toppings is the magnificent Civic Theatre, which opened in December 1929. Its tower is surmounted by a very ornate embellishment, though I haven’t been able to find out any information about it. The Civic was the last of the great atmospheric theatres to be built in Australasia. Its interior has to be seen to be believed, with its Indian-fantasy-temple-garden foyer, and the starlit night sky and Persian Palace minarets in its auditorium. But that’s a story for another day, another blog …

Four Ponsonby churches

Modified from: Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, NZ Map 3926

Last Saturday I enjoyed another guided walk, from amongst the huge selection offered as part of the 2013 Auckland Heritage Festival, a walk around four churches in the inner-city suburb of Ponsonby.

We started at St John’s Methodist Church (working from the bottom right red blob in this image to the top left), then continued along Ponsonby Road to the All Saints Anglican, before turning left into Jervois Road and walking along, firstly, to the Ponsonby Baptist Church and finishing further along still at the St Stephen’s Presbyterian Church.

So, starting with the Methodists … This wonderful old church, dating from 1882 and built of kauri in the Gothic Revival style, still retains its original colour scheme. Paint colours were very limited back in the late 1800s, so most buildings were painted cream, with decorative details and roofs either painted a barn red or Lincoln green.

Prussian immigrant and master craftsman, Anton Teutenberg (he of the High Court heads and gargoyles), carved the wonderful pulpit and corbels on the windows, whose stained glass offers beautiful examples of Art Deco design.

The congregation of this church reflects the changing population of Ponsonby itself. Originally home to Auckland’s middle class, whose women would have been active in the early suffrage movement, Ponsonby saw, in the 1960s, both a reduction in the numbers of Europeans attending church and an influx of Pacific Islanders who did, so the church became the centre for the Auckland District Samoan Fellowship. Though most Pacific Island families cannot now afford the million-dollar price-tags of the heritage houses in Ponsonby and other inner-city suburbs, the church remains their much-loved and much-used centre of worship.

Teutenberg's magnificent pulpit

Outside the modern All Saints Anglican Church is a wonderful old pohutukawa tree which the church’s brochure romantically suggests was where ‘Bishop Selwyn met with the people of Ponsonby, probably in 1865, to discuss building the church that became the first All Saints’. It’s a good story but, as this 1879 image clearly shows, the tree is not that old.

All Saints Ponsonby, 1879, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 4-308

The image depicts the original All Saints, first opened in December 1866. Sadly, that wonderful old wooden structure was demolished in the 1950s to make way for the present church. The church’s brochure also waxes lyrical about how special this modern church is but the 1950s Richard Toy design, though its large open interior and concertina-shaped brick walls are modelled on Coventry Cathedral in England, didn’t particularly impress me. Modernism simply isn’t my thing.

The church does have a beautiful wooden ceiling – apparently containing 6 and a half miles of timber! – and there are some lovely stained glass windows set into the lower parts of the chevron brick walls, images of such saints as Augustine of Hippo, Margaret of Scotland and the Venerable Bede.

We moved on to the most austere of these four churches, the Ponsonby Baptist Church, founded in 1880. I love the simplicity of this wooden building. It has no stained glass windows because the Baptists prefer the pure light of God streaming through their windows and its Classical Greek style was felt appropriate, as Jesus and his disciples, being of diverse nationalities, would have spoken Greek to one another. It would not originally have contained a cross either – the current cross is a relatively recent addition, added about 20 years previously and made of old telephone poles.

The most ornate thing in the church is the organ, originally brought to New Zealand by Samuel Marsden for the old St Paul’s Church in the central city (since demolished) and one of only 10 John Avery organs remaining in the entire world. It dates from 1779 but was sent to England for restoration six years ago so its sound is as sweet today as when it was first built. We were very lucky to be treated to a chat about the history and workings of this magnificent musical instrument, and a short recital.

The final church, St Stephen’s Presbyterian, is currently closed for services due to worries about the risk of earthquakes, part of the government and local authorities’ knee-jerk reaction to the devastation of the Christchurch earthquake. Auckland, as most people know, does not have a high earthquake risk and it is generally stone, not wooden buildings which are most at risk of collapse when earthquakes do occur. Luckily, the closure is being challenged by the church authorities, with the support of experts from the University of Auckland’s Schools of Architecture and Engineering, as it is a huge shame that people cannot more readily visit this magnificent structure.

Built of kauri in 1875 in Gothic Revival design with a standard rectangular shape, the church was expanded thirty years later into its present cross shape. It has a tin external roof and holes in its ceilings and wall panels, which were originally intended to let out the fumes from the gas lighting and kerosene heaters. The interior hammerbeam roof is magnificent, and has the additional and apparently quite unusual feature of metal rods connecting the spans. Another unusual feature is the sloping floor, intended to give parishioners seated in the back pews a better view.

Rather than a cross or a fixed altar, the central focus of the church is the large organ, which was originally powered by a hydraulic pump but is now motorised. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to hear this one in action.

In front of the organ sit five chairs, the central ‘God’ chair, reserved for the minister, and two chairs on either side for the church elders. This is, I have now learnt, a common feature in Presbyterian churches. Before these chairs, on a table, lay an open bible, another common feature. In fact, some of our group recalled the bible being processed in and out of their churches, a means of emphasising the Presbyterians’ belief in the importance of the bible as the word of God.

Not being a religious person, I learnt a great deal during this guided walk, but what I enjoyed most was the magnificent architecture of the three older buildings. Long may they survive the evils of developers … and earthquakes!