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 …

Weathervanes, wind vanes and weathercocks

In an effort to improve my photographer’s eye, I often go through periods when, during my daily strolls, I make a point of looking in a particular direction or hunting out certain things. For example, I might spend a whole week looking down (hence my recent fascination with fungi) or seeking out street art or exploring Auckland’s heritage buildings.

During recent days of looking up, I have discovered yet another fascinating aspect of Auckland’s architecture, the embellishments that adorn the city’s turrets and towers, spires and steeples, and this blog on weathervanes is one result – there will be another, about all the other ornamental turret toppings I've found.

Considering they are used to indicate wind direction, it comes as no surprise that weathervanes (also known as wind vanes and weathercocks) are usually found on the highest points of buildings. According to Professor Wiki, the earliest known weathervane (possibly built around 50BC) was a bronze Triton (in Greek mythology, the messenger of the sea) atop the Tower of the Winds in Athens.

Ferry Building weathervane. This wonderful image was taken by John McKillop and is used with his kind permission.

Ferry Building, Quay Street

New Zealand’s weathervanes have no such claims to fame though one of our Auckland weathervanes did literally stop city traffic recently. On 17 April 2014, the remnants of tropical cyclone Ita swept across Auckland, causing huge storm surges to flood waterfront homes and the weathervane on the top of the Ferry Building in Quay Street to sway rather alarmingly. To prevent potential damage to life and limb if it toppled, the street was closed to traffic, and the weathervane has since been removed. Hopefully, it will be repaired and reinstated very soon.

Though their function was purely practical, many weathervanes are themselves beautiful pieces of art and frequently reflect the buildings for which they were designed. The ship design on the Ferry Building is a perfect example and here is another.

Colonial Ammunition Company Shot Tower, Normanby Road, Mt Eden

In 1885, in response to the threat of war with Russia, the Colonial Ammunition Company established New Zealand’s first munitions factory. At that time, their site was far enough away from the built up inner city to be suitable for the manufacture of dangerous goods. Nowadays, the tower is surrounded by commercial buildings and inner-city housing developments. Though activity at the factory increased during the Second World War, when staff numbers rose from 230 to 900, the demand for ammunition steadily decreased and the company closed in 1982.

As this advertisement from the Dominion newspaper (25 November 1916, p.6) shows, the company was very proud of its 140-foot-high state-of-the-art tower, which was used to drop molten metal to make shot. Luckily, the tower and its oh-so-appropriate rifle weathervane (below, left) have survived the wrecking ball and remain a unique part of Mt Eden’s heritage.

Mt Eden weathervanes: at left, on the Colonial Ammunition Company's Shot Tower; at right, on a local building

Mt Eden Village, corner of Essex and Mt Eden Roads

The suburb of Mt Eden is also home to another rather wonderful and very typical weathervane (above, right). The use of a cockerel in a weathervane is where the alternative name ‘weathercock’ originates and is a classic weathervane design, with its origins possibly in Christianity. Apparently, Pope Nicholas issued a decree in the 9th century commanding all churches to display the symbol of a cock on their steeple or dome (the cock is symbolic of Jesus’ prophecy of Peter’s betrayal, Luke 22:34), but there is some evidence that the cockerel appeared in weathervanes before that time and it may simply represent the rooster crowing at daybreak.

According to Auckland City Council’s ‘Mt Eden Heritage Walks’ brochure, the Mt Eden building:

… was erected prior to 1905. Photos show that this side of Mt Eden Road was almost completely unbuilt, rural land in the late 1880s. Designed in a classic Italianate style, this building was a significant addition to the village streetscape, and reinforced this intersection as the hub of the village.

There is nothing to explain the weathervane, unfortunately.

Corner of Carlton Gore Road and George Street, Newmarket

I’ve also found nothing about this next weathervane (on the right in the picture below) of another cockerel and the archetypal compass points. The building is a modern one, currently occupied by the Personalised Plates company, and the weathervane may just be the ornamental addition of an enlightened architect.

Left: on the Royal NZ Foundation for the Blind workshop building; right, on the Personalised Plates building

Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind Workshop Building, Newmarket

Not far from Personalised Plates is an older example of a weathervane, on what was the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind workshop building. This building, and the adjacent residential school for the blind, were built in 1909, to provide a sheltered environment for blind people to live, study, learn skills and earn a living.

The design on the weathervane, of a man sitting weaving with cane, appears to reflect the fact that craft industries such as cane basket weaving and furniture making were the principal occupations offered at the Blind Institute until well into the 1970s [Greg Newbold, Quest for Equity: a history of blindness advocacy in New Zealand, Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, 2008].

St Mary’s College Hall, New Street, St Mary's Bay

On the other side of town stands the beautiful old hall of St Mary’s College (above), which has atop its tower a combined wind vane and cross. St Mary’s College is the oldest still-functioning secondary school in New Zealand, founded originally on a different site by the Sisters of Mercy in 1850 but relocated to its present site in Ponsonby in the early 1860s. A wooden chapel dating from that era is still in use but this building, the St Mary’s College Hall, was part of a new school, erected in 1929 at a cost of £36,000, in a picturesque Spanish Mission style on the northern side of the property.

Grey Lynn Library, 474 Great North Road, Grey Lynn

My immediate thought when I saw this turret topping was ‘Quidditch Snitch’. However, though the snitch was first introduced to the game of Quidditch in 1269 by Chief of the Wizards’ Council Barberus Bragge, the folks of early 20th century Auckland were not at all familiar with the world of Harry Potter and his fellow wizards so the similarity must be sheer coincidence.

The Grey Lynn Public Library was designed by architect W. H. Gummer, built of brick in the Georgian style, and opened in December 1924 by then mayor Sir James Gunson. The building continues to be used as a public library and the attached building, on which the snitch sits, as the local community hall. Though the snitch is not your typical weathervane, I have no doubt that its wings were intended to show the direction of the prevailing wind. Sadly, the innovative designer’s name remains a mystery – Rowling, perhaps?

More Auckland street art: All Fresco 2014

BMD's artwork from All Fresco 2013 - see more on BMD below

Earlier this month I blogged about Auckland’s vibrant street art. I have since found out that a couple of the artworks I featured in that blog were part of street art festival, All Fresco 2014, a wonderful initiative from the K Road Business Association to cultivate the creativity and fringe culture Karangahape Road is famous for.

As I hadn't seen all the works produced by the All Fresco artists, last weekend I made it my mission to find and photograph the others. Here, then, is a further celebration of Auckland’s vibrant street art scene, the All Fresco 2014 festival and the amazing artists who took part.

In my previous blog, Mica Still was the artist in the throes of painting her gigantic work on the back wall of the Lim Chhour Centre in Cross Street. Though now based in Wellington, Mica hails from a small coastal town in Oregon, in the USA, which may explain her love for radiant colours and subjects from the natural world. On the left above is her finished artwork. 

On the right, painted on the same building as Mica’s work, stand a series of giant figures by Benjamin Work. Benjamin is a South-Aucklander of Tongan heritage whose commissions include large-scale public murals like this one, as well as postage stamps and wine packaging. A man of diverse talents!

Owen Dippie’s larger-than-life portraits are astounding, and his work is internationally recognised for its realism and artistic merit. This artwork is on the side of a building in Pitt Street but in Tauranga, where he lives, Owen has been commissioned to produce a series of 15 huge artworks to adorn the walls of his city – three have been finished, the fourth will soon be underway. You can see more on his website.

Central Auckland artist Nigel Roberts hasn’t always painted walls legally but, since 2005, he’s mended his ways and followed the straight-and-narrow, at least in his choice of venue. Roberts says he enjoys painting letters with a brush and developing a 3D effect in his work to make the image pop. That’s his signage, ‘Big Bots are Pops’, on the left in this photo of Beresford Square. 

The Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn-lookalike paintings are by Gasp aka Liam Hindsley. He seems to have been painting street art for some years but I haven’t been able to find out much about the man himself.

Founder of the TMD (The Most Dedicated) street art crew Charles Williams combines his talent for bold colour and his love of graffiti with his passion for native New Zealand birds to create stunning artworks like the one above. Wrapping around a corner wall in Poynton Terrace, Charles’s saddleback artwork, entitled Warrior Bird, is simply gorgeous. The multi-coloured circle designs issuing forth from its beak, symbolic of its beautiful song, are by Lady Diva.

Just around the corner from Charles’s big bird is an even bigger artwork, by Misery and Tom Tom. Cascading down the back wall of this building, a series of four kids enjoy some summer fun in the water. Misery is the graffiti street art and fashion label of Australian Tanja Jade Thompson. If you follow my blog, you may remember that she featured in one of my pieces about the 2014 Whittaker’s Big Egg Hunt. Misery often collaborates with Tom Tom on large-scale murals like this one, though Tom Tom is more likely to be found creating smaller artworks – he is a well known Auckland tattooist.

BMD (aka Blake Dunlop) happily admits he likes big walls – and this is one big artwork on one big wall. His four super-size ducks are to be found at the K Road end of Myers Park, and one look at his website will show you that his imagination and his talent are as enormous as the art he produces. He was also responsible for the K Road artwork (shown at top), produced during last year’s All Fresco event.

Last but most definitely not least is the work of Elliot Francis Stewart. He is another member of the TMD group of street artists, and earns a living as an artist and freelance illustrator. His massive contribution to All Fresco 2014 adorns a wall at the K Road end of Ponsonby Road. Apparently, he is amazing to watch working and I just wish I had known the festival was on – I would’ve been there. To make sure I don’t miss out next year, I’m following the event on Facebook and you can too.