By Roselyn Fauth
I was on a Seacliff Lunatic Asylum history hunt when I realised Timaru had a few things in common with that story. Not the scale or the controversy, but something quieter and just as interesting. An architect. The same architect whose name keeps surfacing in Dunedin and Otago histories also turns up, almost discreetly, in Timaru’s streets. Today’s history hunt is about Robert Arthur Lawson, and the design legacy he left behind in Timaru.
Lawson’s most significant public buildings included the Dunedin Municipal Chambers (1878–1880), Otago Boys’ High School (1882–1884), and the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum complex (1879–1884), now demolished. At the time of its completion, Seacliff was the largest building in the colony. Structural problems emerged early, however, and in 1887 a major slip rendered part of the building unusable. A commission of inquiry the following year found both Lawson and the Public Works Department at fault, marking a turning point in his career and casting a long shadow over his reputation.
When we look closely at Timaru’s historic buildings, we often discover links between growing towns and cities. Robert Arthur Lawson is a good example of this interconnected world. Although his architectural practice was based in Dunedin from the early 1860s, his work extended across Otago and South Canterbury, leaving Timaru with a small but significant group of buildings that speak to the town’s confidence during its formative years...
Lawson was born on 1 January 1833 at Grange, in the parish of Abdie, Fife, Scotland. He was the fourth child of James Lawson, a carpenter, and Margaret Arthur. Educated at the local parish school, he began his architectural training in Perth around 1848 and completed it in Edinburgh in the early 1850s with James Gillespie Graham, an architect closely associated with Augustus Pugin and the Gothic Revival movement. That lineage helps explain the assured handling of Gothic forms seen throughout Lawson’s later church designs.
In 1854 Lawson emigrated to Australia at the height of the Victorian gold rush. His early years were varied. He tried gold mining at Ballarat, worked as a newspaper correspondent in Melbourne and Geelong, and designed early school buildings near Geelong. By 1861 he was practising as an architect in Melbourne. The following year, under the pseudonym “Presbyter”, he won the competition to design the First Presbyterian Church of Otago. He arrived in Dunedin in May 1862 and established his practice there soon after.
From his Dunedin base, Lawson became one of the most prolific architects working in New Zealand between the 1860s and the 1890s. He designed churches, banks, schools, civic buildings, commercial warehouses, hotels and private houses across the country and in Australia. His best-known works include First Church of Otago, Knox Church, the Dunedin Municipal Chambers, Otago Boys’ High School, Larnach Castle and the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum. His commissions were not limited to major cities. Regional centres such as Timaru also engaged him at key moments in their development.
Lawson was pre-eminently a church architect, designing and supervising the construction of more than 40 churches. A prominent Presbyterian himself, he served as an elder and session clerk at First Church in Dunedin. Most of his churches are Gothic in style and Puginian in character, adapted for Presbyterian worship by dispensing with long chancels while retaining strong vertical emphasis and symbolic form. These principles also carried into his secular work, where proportion, structure and ornament gave even commercial buildings a sense of civic presence. Although Lawson was personally a teetotaller, he was pragmatic, designing hotels and even an extension to Speight’s Brewery during the 1870s and 1880s.
Timaru’s connection to Lawson sits within the most productive phase of his career. His earliest commission here was the Bank of New Zealand building opened in 1870, part of a wider body of commercial work in Oamaru and Dunedin. Although the Timaru bank no longer survives, it is well documented and reflects the importance placed on banking architecture in a town determined to project stability and permanence.
That same period of church building also reached Timaru. Trinity Presbyterian Church, constructed between 1875 and 1876, was designed during the same years as many of Lawson’s strongest ecclesiastical works. Although the building has since been demolished, archival plans and records confirm its place within his Presbyterian architecture.
By the late 1870s, Lawson was working at a much larger civic scale. The Dunedin Municipal Chambers, built between 1878 and 1880, marked a high point in his public architecture. In 1879 he produced a deliberately reduced version of this design for Timaru to serve as the Government Buildings, later known as the Timaru Post Office. Constructed between 1879 and 1881 on Sophia Street, the complex replaced the town’s earlier post office and consolidated several central government functions in one prominent civic location.
The former Government Buildings at 12–16 Sophia Street were designed in an Italianate style commonly used for government architecture in New Zealand at the time. Built by Messrs Tubb & Targuse, the two- to three-storey plastered brick building originally housed the Post and Telegraph Office, Government Insurance Office, Customs Office and the South Canterbury Board of Education. A telephone exchange was added in 1885, and by 1903 it served 174 subscribers across the region.
The civic importance of the site was reinforced by the erection of the Wrecks Monument and a Queen Victoria Jubilee drinking fountain in 1887. Over time, the building was altered to meet changing needs. Additions were made in the early 1920s, and the clock tower, part of Lawson’s original design, was removed in 1933 following concerns raised after the 1931 Napier earthquake. Despite later modifications, the building retains its overall form and strong presence within Timaru’s historic civic precinct.
Fun fact: the clock tower originally held an early clock, later replaced in 1913 by a new clock and chimes gifted by Mayor James Craigie. This later clock is understood to have used Westminster-style chimes, linking Timaru sonically to Big Ben. The clock was transferred to the Council Chambers when the tower was removed.
Timaru is also fortunate to retain another substantial Lawson building. The former Timaru Drill Hall at the corner of High and Mill Streets was constructed in 1886 and remains standing today as a Category B heritage building. Designed by Lawson and built by William Hall-Jones, later Prime Minister of New Zealand, it was purpose-built to serve local military volunteer units.
Architecturally, the Drill Hall is a large rectangular structure with a bow-arched main hall, allowing a wide, unobstructed interior. This reflects structural techniques Lawson had already refined in church design. The building served both military and civic purposes and was the departure point for local soldiers in August 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War.
Seen together, the former Post Office and the Drill Hall represent the strongest surviving examples of Lawson’s work in Timaru. They sit alongside lost buildings such as the Bank of New Zealand and Trinity Presbyterian Church to tell a broader story of ambition, growth and civic confidence during the town’s late nineteenth-century development.
After leaving New Zealand in 1890, Lawson worked in Melbourne before returning to Dunedin around 1900. He died suddenly on 3 December 1902 while visiting family at Sutherlands, near Pleasant Point, and was buried in Dunedin’s Northern Cemetery.
Much of what we now know about Lawson’s career comes from the research of retired architect Norman Ledgerwood, who rediscovered original Lawson drawings in 1954 and later published the first comprehensive study of his work. Through that wider lens, Lawson’s buildings in Timaru are not isolated examples but part of a regional architectural network. They remind us that Timaru’s streets were shaped not only by local builders and patrons, but also by architects working across towns, carrying ideas, experience and ambition with them.
Next time you walk past the former Post Office or the Drill Hall, you are looking at buildings designed during the peak years of one of New Zealand’s most influential nineteenth-century architects, and at a chapter of Timaru’s story written in brick, stone and timber.
- First Church of Otago (Presbyterian) | Dunedin | 1867–1873 |
Designed by Robert Arthur Lawson | Landmark Gothic Revival church; competition design won 1862; one of Lawson’s most celebrated works - Trinity Methodist Church (former, now Fortune Theatre) | Dunedin | 1869–1870 |
Designed by Robert Arthur Lawson | Strong Gothic detailing; later adapted for theatrical use - East Taieri Presbyterian Church | Mosgiel, Otago | 1870 |
Designed by Robert Arthur Lawson | Early rural church commission - Knox Church (Presbyterian) | Dunedin | 1870s |
Attributed to Robert Arthur Lawson | Attribution supported by heritage sources, though some design input debated - Dunedin Municipal Chambers (Town Hall complex) | Dunedin | 1878–1880 |
Designed by Robert Arthur Lawson | Major civic building; source for later “reduced” designs elsewhere - Otago Boys’ High School (Tower Block) | Dunedin | 1882–1884 |
Designed by Robert Arthur Lawson | One of his most important educational buildings; prominent tower form - Seacliff Lunatic Asylum (complex) | Near Dunedin (Seacliff) | 1879–1884 |
Designed by Robert Arthur Lawson | Once the largest building in New Zealand; site instability led to later inquiry; demolished - Bank of Otago (former, later National Bank) | Oamaru | 1870 |
Designed by Robert Arthur Lawson | Part of Oamaru’s classical commercial streetscape - Bank of New South Wales (former, now Forrester Gallery) | Oamaru | Early 1880s |
Designed by Robert Arthur Lawson | Grand neoclassical stone building; now an art gallery - Kakanui Presbyterian Church (former) | Kakanui, Otago | 1870 |
Designed by Robert Arthur Lawson | Small-scale church commission - Union Bank of Australia (later ANZ Bank) | Dunedin | 1874 |
Designed by Robert Arthur Lawson | Commercial banking architecture; later adaptations - Park’s School / South District School (later residence) | Dunedin | 1864 |
Designed by Robert Arthur Lawson | Early educational building; later converted to domestic use - Government Buildings (Former Post Office complex) | Timaru | 1879–1881 |
Designed by Robert Arthur Lawson | “Reduced” version of Dunedin Municipal Chambers; key Timaru civic building - Bank of New Zealand (former) | Timaru | 1870 |
Designed by Robert Arthur Lawson | Demolished; documented in biographical sources - Trinity Presbyterian Church (former) | Timaru | 1875–1876 |
Designed by Robert Arthur Lawson | Demolished; known through archival plans and records - Larnach Castle | Otago Peninsula | 1871–1887 |
Associated with Robert Arthur Lawson | Lawson supervised construction and may have produced basic design; strong client involvement; attribution complex
Lawson designed buildings that are still standing in Timaru
The former Government Buildings, later known as the Timaru Post Office, are located at 12–16 Sophia Street and form a prominent part of Timaru’s historic civic precinct.
Constructed between 1879 and 1881, the building replaced the town’s earlier post office and was designed by Dunedin architect Robert Arthur Lawson. Built by contractors Messrs Tubb & Targuse, it reflects the Italianate architectural style commonly used for government buildings in New Zealand during the late nineteenth century. The structure is a two to three-storey plastered brick building with multiple hipped roofs, classical detailing and a footprint shaped by the sloping site.
The building originally housed several key government services, including the Post and Telegraph Office, Government Insurance Office, Customs Office and the South Canterbury Board of Education. A telephone exchange was added in 1885, reflecting Timaru’s early adoption of telecommunications infrastructure. By 1903, the exchange served 174 subscribers, while the Board of Education administered schools across a wide regional area. The importance of the site as a civic centre was reinforced by the erection of the Wrecks Monument in the 1880s and a Queen Victoria Jubilee drinking fountain in 1887.
Over time, the building was altered to meet changing needs and safety standards. Additions were made along Sophia Street in the early 1920s, and following the 1931 Napier earthquake, the clock tower was removed in 1933 due to structural concerns. Further changes included the removal of decorative masonry around 1950 and later window alterations. Despite these modifications, the building retains its overall form, architectural character and strong presence within the streetscape.
The former Government Buildings hold historical, social and cultural significance for their long association with central government services and the daily lives of staff and residents who relied on them. Architecturally, the building is significant as a major work by RA Lawson, who also designed notable public buildings elsewhere in New Zealand. Its location alongside other heritage buildings reinforces its contextual value, while its pre-1900 origins give the site potential archaeological significance relating to the colonial development of Timaru’s governmental precinct.
https://www.timarucivictrust.co.nz/blog/timarus-chief-post-office
The former Timaru Drill Hall, located at 2 High Street, Timaru, is a Category B heritage building recorded as HHI85 in the Timaru District Plan.
It occupies Section 475 of the Town of Timaru and was constructed in 1886. The building was designed by prominent Dunedin architect R. A. Lawson and built by William Hall-Jones, who later became Prime Minister of New Zealand. It was officially opened on 1 September 1886 and was purpose-built to serve the needs of local military volunteer units during a period when volunteer forces played a significant role in community defence and civic life.
Architecturally, the drill hall is a large rectangular structure designed in a military vernacular style. It features a bow-arched main hall that allowed for a wide, open interior space without internal supports, demonstrating notable technological and construction skill for its time. The building is constructed from a combination of timber, brick, concrete and corrugated metal, with tapering concrete buttresses along the side walls. A lean-to addition was added to the west end in 1896–97, designed by architects Meason and Marchant. Over time, some alterations have occurred, including recladding of the west wall in concrete block and the insertion of newer windows, but the building’s original form and scale remain legible.
Historically, the drill hall functioned as a base for the Timaru Garrison Corps and other rifle volunteer units and included club rooms used by different corps. It also served wider civic purposes, hosting public gatherings and significant events, including South Canterbury jubilee celebrations attended by national political figures. In 1913, with the introduction of compulsory military training, ownership of the building transferred to the Defence Department. At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the drill hall was the departure point from which local soldiers marched to the railway station before embarking for overseas service.
The building remained in military use until 1944, after which it was sold and adapted for commercial purposes. It was subsequently used by J. K. Mooney & Son, wool buyers, and continues to be used for light industrial activities. The former Timaru Drill Hall has historical, social and cultural significance due to its long association with local military activity, civic events and wartime mobilisation. It also has architectural significance as a work by R. A. Lawson and contributes to the historic character of High Street, with a close visual and historical relationship to nearby memorials such as the Timaru Troopers’ Memorial of 1904. As a pre-1900 site, it also holds potential archaeological value relating to Timaru’s colonial and military history.
https://www.timaru.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/673907/Historic-Heritage-Assessment-Report-HHI85-Former-Timaru-Drill-Hall-Category-B-NEW.pdf
Family:
Spouse: Jessie Sinclair Hepburn Lawson 1842–1923 (m. 1864)
- Children
Rachel Ida Lawson 1866–1956 - James Newburgh Lawson 1868–1957
- Maggie Lillie Lawson 1869–1926
- Jessie Lawson 1871–1878
He died 1902, aged 69 while visiting family at the Sutherlands, near Pleasant Point, South Canterbury. He was buried in Dunedin's Northern cemetery Block 8. Plot 7.
Sources
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2l5/lawson-robert-arthur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lawson_(architect)
https://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/lawson-man-behind-name
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/184203000/robert_arthur-lawson
Ledgerwood, Norman (2013). R.A. Lawson: Victorian Architect of Dunedin (Paperback). Dunedin: historic Cemeteries Commission Trust of New Zealand. pp. 160–162. ISBN 978-0-473-24403-3.
Reed, A.H. (1957). Larnach and his Castle (Paperback). Dunedin: Reed.
https://www.northerncemetery.org.nz/images/pdf/Lawson.pdf
Buildings to visit:
Former Government Buildings (Timaru Post Office), 12–16 Sophia Street, Timaru, 1879–1881
Former Timaru Drill Hall, 2 High Street, Timaru, 1886
Bank of Otago (former National Bank), Oamaru, 1870
Bank of New South Wales (now Forrester Gallery), Oamaru, early 1880s
Kakanui Presbyterian Church, Kakanui, 1870
First Church of Otago (Presbyterian), Dunedin, 1867–1873
Trinity Methodist Church (now Fortune Theatre), Dunedin, 1869–1870
Dunedin Municipal Chambers, Dunedin, 1878–1880
Knox Church (Presbyterian), Dunedin, 1874–1876
Otago Boys’ High School (Tower Block), Dunedin, 1882–1884
Larnach Castle, Otago Peninsula, 1871–1887
East Taieri Presbyterian Church, Mosgiel, 1870
Built Heritage Blog: The Architect Behind Timaru’s Former Post Office
By Roselyn Fauth
I remember the red post boxes on Sophia Street. It was my job to turn the key to collect the post. It was a busy, drawing foot traffic through to the Royal Arcade. We know the building today as the former Post Office, though it began life as Timaru’s Government Buildings. For years, I passed it, without giving much thought to who designed it or why it looks the way it does.
That question resurfaced recently, while I was learning about the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum near Dunedin. The architect of Seacliff and Timaru's former post office was Robert Arthur Lawson. Turns out Lawson had quite an interesting career and has left a legacy of some very interesting heritage buildings.
Lawson was born in 1833 in Fife, Scotland, and trained in Perth and Edinburgh during the Gothic Revival, which was an architectural style that drew its inspiration from medieval architecture (c. 1749-1930s). (Think ntricate detailing, flying buttresses, pointed windows and doors). In 1854 he was drawn to the Australian goldfields, spending time at Ballarat before working as a journalist and architect in Melbourne. In 1862 Lawson sailed for Dunedin, where his sketch plans had won the competition for the design of First Church of Otago among six entrants. The building, in decorated Gothic style, was designed in 1862 by Robert Lawson. I read that Lawson was such a perfectionist that the that the top of the spire had to be dismantled and rebuilt when it failed to measure up to his standards. It is the primary Presbyterian church of Dunedin. The building is regarded as the most impressive nineteenth-century church in New Zealand.
A miniature of the church was created by Lawson in the city's Northern Cemetery as a family tomb for noted early Dunedinite William Larnach.
The building is constructed of Oamaru stone, set on foundations of basalt breccia from Port Chalmers, with details carved by Louis Godfrey, who also did much of the woodcarving in the interior.
The discovering of gold inland, resulting in rapid growth in the city.
By the time Lawson was to bring his architectural flare to Timaru's government buildings, he already designed major Gothic Revival churches, banks and civic buildings across Dunedin, Otago and North Otago, including First Church of Otago, Knox Church, the Dunedin Municipal Chambers, Larnach Castle and the Bank of Otago in Oamaru.
His early buildings were designed for Dunedin clients. First Church of Otago, completed in 1873. Knox Church in the mid-1870s. The Dunedin Municipal Chambers, finished in 1880. Otago Boys’ High School soon after. His work also includes Larnach Castle on the Otago Peninsula, constructed from 1871, and, of course, Seacliff, designed and built between 1879 and 1884. At the time it was completed, Seacliff was the largest building in New Zealand. Its later structural problems and the inquiry that followed in the late 1880s marked a turning point in Lawson’s career and reputation.
From his Dunedin base, Lawson’s work extended to Oamaru, where his Bank of Otago of 1870 and the former Bank of New South Wales of the early 1880s.
Timaru's first post office had stood nearby since the early 1860s, but by the late 1870s it wanted something more permanent. The former Government Buildings on Sophia Street were constructed between 1879 and 1881 by contractors Tubb and Targuse, using a reduced version of Lawson’s Dunedin Municipal Chambers design. The Italianate plastered brick complex housed the Post and Telegraph Office, Customs, Government Insurance and the South Canterbury Board of Education. A telephone exchange was added in 1885.
The building sits within a tight civic cluster, with the Council offices, South Canterbury Museum and St Mary’s Church nearby, and the Royal Arcade directly across the road. The clock tower once held a clock gifted in 1913 by Mayor James Craigie, later moved to the Council Chambers after the tower was removed in 1933.
A short walk away, the former Drill Hall on High Street, completed in 1886, shows another side of Lawson’s work. Built by William Hall-Jones, then a local contractor and later Prime Minister, it was designed with a vast bow-arched interior. Hall-Jones’s family story also intersects with one of Timaru’s most notorious episodes, through his nephew Thomas Hall and the murder trial over the poisoning of Captain Henry Cain.
Lawson left New Zealand in 1890 and later returned south. He died suddenly in 1902 while visiting family near Timaru and was buried in Dunedin.
Part of the former Post Office building now sits empty, waiting for the next tenant to carry on a history tied to our small city. Other Lawson buildings in Timaru, including the Bank of New Zealand and Trinity Presbyterian Church, have been lost, which makes the survivors like this and the army hall matter more.
When people understand the stories embedded in everyday buildings, they may care more about the future of their town.
Brought to you by the Timaru Civic Trust, celebrating our built heritage and the people who keep it alive.
Municipal Chambers in Dundein wikimedia 2197d lg
The First Church - located on Moray Place, approximately 100 metres south of the city centre
See a miniature of the church at the Northern cemetery of Larnach's grave - A miniature of the church was created by Lawson in the city's Northern Cemetery as a family tomb for noted early Dunedinite William Larnach.
It is the primary Presbyterian church of Dunedin.
Construction was delayed due to the Bell Hill excavation.
The foundation stone was laid in May 1868 by Dr Thomas Burns.
The church officially opened on 23 November 1873.
Dr Burns, a strong supporter of the project, died before its completion.
Externally, the design echoes late Norman cathedrals of England.
It was the tallest building in the South Island until Christchurch Cathedral was completed in 1881.
It is currently Dunedin’s tallest building.
It is the fourth-tallest building in the South Island.
The building is constructed from Oamaru stone.
Foundations are made from basalt breccia from Port Chalmers.
Stone carving and interior woodcarving were completed by Louis Godfrey.
Cathedral glass was used instead of pictorial stained glass initially.
This reflected Otago’s low-church Presbyterian traditions.
The bells were cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London. They are rung by members of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Bellringers. At installation, they were the only such bells in a Presbyterian church outside the UK.
They were claimed to be the southernmost ring of bells in the world.
A large bell from Scotland, sent in 1851, stands outside the church.
A memorial plaque to Dr Thomas Burns is located in the church grounds.
Entrance gates feature lamps originally used as Edinburgh street lamps.
Architect Robert Lawson designed a miniature replica of the church.
This replica serves as the Larnach family mausoleum in Dunedin Northern Cemetery.
ROBERT ARTHUR LAWSON
Burial register ID: 9217
Surname: LAWSON
First name: ROBERT
Middle names: ARTHUR
Gender: Male
Age: 69 Years
Cause of death: Unknown
Burial type:
Date of death: 04-Dec-1902
Date of burial: 06-Dec-1902
Block: 8
Plot: 7
JESSIE 7 Years 20-Aug-1878 23-Aug-1878
JESSIE SINCLAIR 81 Years 29-Dec-1923 31-Dec-1923
ROBERT ARTHUR 69 Years 04-Dec-1902 06-Dec-1902
WALTER 73 Years 01-Sep-1903 03-Sep-1903
IN MEMORY OF
ROBERT ARTHUR LAWSON
BORN 1 JANUARY 1833, GRANGE, SCOTLAND
DIED 4 DECEMBER 1902, DUNEDIN
AGED 69 YEARS
ALSO HIS WIFE JESSIE SINCLAIR
(NEE HEPBURN)
DIED 29 DECEMBER 1923,
AGED 81 YEARS
AND THEIR DAUGHTER JESSIE
DIED 20 AUGUST 1878,
AGED 7 YEARS
ALSO HIS BROTHER WALTER
DIED 1 SEPTEMBER 1903,
AGED 74 YEARS
On separate monument:-
“JESUS LOVES ME”
WEE JESSIE
Northern Cemetery, Dunedin – Facts
- The Northern Cemetery site was selected in 1857.
- It was chosen for its picturesque setting and ease of access to the town.
- The hillside location was believed to prevent the cemetery from becoming a nuisance to the town.
- The decision to locate the cemetery within part of the town belt faced considerable opposition.
- On 5 February 1870, a Bill was passed allowing development of the cemetery at this location.
- The cemetery officially opened for interments in November 1872.
- Burials and Use
- The first burial took place on 2 December 1872.
- The first person buried was Ada Massey, a child.
- Ada Massey was buried in Plot One, Block 45.
- Approximately 18,000 people have been buried in the Northern Cemetery.
- The last burial plot was sold in 1937.
- Reinterments in existing family plots are still permitted.
- The cemetery is closed to new burials except for family reinterments.
- Layout and Maintenance
- The cemetery covers a total area of 20 acres.
- Approximately 15 acres are occupied by graves.
- The remaining land was developed into ornamental walkways and gardens.
- The cemetery was designed to provide a pleasant environment for walking and promenading.
- Only a portion of burial plots were maintained by the sexton.
- Families were expected to maintain their own burial plots.
- Ongoing upkeep of the cemetery is the responsibility of the Dunedin City Council.
- Community groups assist with maintenance, working bees, and beautification projects.
- Social Structure and Burial Classes
- The Northern Cemetery reflects social divisions present in late 19th-century Dunedin.
- Burial plots were divided into three classes.
- The cost of burial plots in 1872 ranged from 12 shillings and 6 pence to £10.
- Pricing depended on social class and whether the burial was of an adult or child.
- First-class plots were located on flatter, more accessible ground.
- First-class plots were generally used by prominent citizens.
- Headstones in first-class areas tend to be large, ornate, and architecturally elaborate.
- Many first-class plots are located on the upper north side of the hill.
- Second-class plots are located lower on the hill, in the gully.
- Third-class plots were allocated to children and paupers.
- Third-class plots are generally harder to access and maintain.
- Areas without headstones are associated with lower burial classes.
- Notable Burials and Historical Significance
- The Northern Cemetery is the final resting place of many notable Dunedin residents.
- Prominent individuals buried there include William Larnach and Sir Thomas Mackenzie.
- The cemetery also contains the graves of many lesser-known individuals important to Dunedin’s history.
- Many 19th-century immigrants to Dunedin are buried in the cemetery.
- Although often described as a “classless” society, Dunedin society was divided by income, status, and opportunity.
- These social divisions are clearly reflected in the cemetery’s layout and memorials.
- Cemetery history was contributed by Jane Davidson in 2003.
FIRST CHURCH
From his architectural office in Melbourne in 1862, Lawson entered the design competition for the principal Presbyterian church in the burgeoning town of Dunedin. His pseudonym was “Presbyter”, guaranteed to appeal inasettlement that had been founded by the Free Church of Scotland in 1848. Gothic was considered to be the only architectural style suitable for a Protestant church in this period, while Catholic churches recreated the classical revival basilicas of the Italian Renaissance. Lawson's design followed Pugin, who favoured the revival of fourteenth-century Gothic and a coherent interior. With no ritual or religious processions, there was no need for a large chancel or side chapels, and the transepts (the arms that extend north and south from a crossing point in a cruciform church) are limited. Instead of being placed traditionally above the axis of nave, chancel and transepts, the 54 metre spire crowns the entrance to the church. Two-storeyed gabled windows on all sides of the tower make it appear even higher.
By Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia - Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=137973593
A carpenter's son, he was bom at Grange in the parish of Abdie in Fife in 1833, but left Scotland for the opportunities of the new world 21 years later in 1854. His training as an architect in Perth and Edinburgh at atime when the Gothic Revivalism of Augustus Pugin (1812-1852) was ascendant proved useful for ecclesiastical work both in Australia and New Zealand. Evidence of his artistic skill is seen in his diary of the passage to Melbourne on board the Tongataboo. Not only are his fervent Presbyterian beliefs recorded in an elegant hand, but there are also little portraits capturing both his own youth and zeal and that of his fellow passengers.
He is behind many of Dunedin’s neo-gothic masterpieces, the most famous of which is probably the First Church of Otago.
Although many of his non-ecclesiastical designs are now demolished, most of his churches still stand.
By Grutness at the English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7540929
Knox Church, Dunedin – Key Facts
- Knox Church is a prominent Presbyterian church in Dunedin, New Zealand.
- It houses Dunedin’s second Presbyterian congregation.
- It is the city’s largest church building of any denomination by physical size.
- The church is located on George Street at the northern end of Dunedin’s central business district.
- It is situated close to the University of Otago.
- The building is visible from much of central Dunedin.
- Geographic coordinates are 45.867152°S, 170.507083°E.
- Early History and First Church Building
- In 1858, a committee was formed to establish a new Presbyterian church in Dunedin.
- The committee was chaired by John Gillies, Otago’s resident magistrate.
- The congregation was formed in 1860 from members of First Church and an independent congregation.
- Baptist and Wesleyan worshippers formed separate churches.
- The church opened on 6 May 1861.
- It was the second Presbyterian church in the Dunedin settlement.
- The first church was a wooden building.
- It was located on the corner of Great King and Frederick Streets.
- The land was donated by John Hyde Harris.
- John Hyde Harris suggested the name Knox Church.
- The first minister was the Reverend D. M. Stuart.
- Reverend Stuart arrived from England in January 1861.
- The original building was intended as a temporary structure.
- Planning for a Permanent Church
- Rapid population growth during the Otago gold rush increased the need for a larger church.
- In 1871, a decision was made to construct a permanent church.
- The new church was planned to seat 1,000 people.
- It was to include space for a choir of 30, a belfry, and a gallery.
- A site was purchased on the corner of George and Pitt Streets.
- The purchase price was £569.
- The land was bought from the trustees of the estate of Edmund Bowler.
- Bowler’s family later unsuccessfully sued the trustees over the sale price.
- Design Competition and Architects
- A design competition attracted 17 submissions.
- The competition was initially won by architect Robert Lawson.
- Lawson’s design exceeded the original £5,000 budget.
- The budget was increased to £6,000 but remained insufficient.
- The church deacons then selected a design by architect David Ross.
- David Ross was commissioned on 22 August 1879.
- £7,200 was allocated for construction, seating, and lighting.
- Ross designed the Otago Museum.
- Disputes arose over the choice of stone and supervision of works.
- Ross’s contract ended on 16 January 1873.
- Ross later sued the church and was awarded £2 in damages.
- Robert Lawson was reappointed as architect in 1874.
- Construction and Opening
- Construction began in 1872.
- The foundation stone was laid on 25 November 1872.
- The date marked 300 years since the death of John Knox.
- The church opened on 5 November 1876.
- Multiple ministers conducted services on opening day.
- The total cost of construction was £18,383.
- The church’s debt was cleared in 1891.
- Later History and Renovations
- The church closed for the first time in June 2008.
- Closure was required for maintenance and installation of a fire sprinkler system.
- The congregation temporarily joined First Church.
- Renovations lasted approximately three months.
- The church reopened in September 2008.
- Restoration work included stained glass window repairs.
- Architecture and Design
- The church was designed by Robert Lawson.
- It is built in a 13th-century Gothic architectural style.
- The building is constructed from bluestone sourced near the Water of Leith.
- Oamaru stone was used for dressings and the spire.
- The floor plan forms a Latin cross.
- The nave is approximately 30 metres long.
- The nave is approximately 22 metres wide on average.
- The spire rises to a height of 51 metres.
- The roof is made of slate.
- The church seats approximately 900 people.
- Organs and Interior Features
- The church contains two pipe organs.
- A large Hill, Norman & Beard organ was installed in 1931.
- This organ was extensively refurbished in 1974.
- A second smaller oak-cased organ originated from a church in Christchurch.
- Notable People Associated with Knox Church
- Reverend Dr Donald M. Stuart served as minister from 1860 to 1894.
- A statue of Reverend Dr Stuart stands near the church.
- Notable ministers include Reverend James Gunn Matheson.
- Jessie Torrance, a nurse and honorary deaconess, was associated with the church in the 1920s.
If you are keen on seeing Lawsons work, check out this trail
https://www.northerncemetery.org.nz/images/pdf/Lawson.pdf
? Address: 415 Moray Place, Dunedin Central, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand
? Google Maps:
2) Union Bank of Australasia (historic building)
? Address: 319 Princes Street, Central Dunedin, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand
? Google Maps:
3) Dunedin Municipal Chambers / Dunedin Town Hall
? Address: 38 The Octagon, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand
? Google Maps:
4) Former Trinity Methodist Church (Fortune Theatre)
? Address: 231 Stuart Street (corner Moray Place & Upper Stuart Street), Dunedin 9016, New Zealand
? Google Maps:
5) Otago Boys’ High School (Lawson designed the original tower block)
? Address: 2 Arthur Street, Dunedin Central, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand
? Google Maps:
6) Knox Church, Dunedin
? Address: 449 George Street, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand
? Google Maps:
7) Larnach Castle (historic residence designed by Lawson)
? Address: Larnach Castle Drive, Otago Peninsula, Dunedin 9077, New Zealand (approx — the official location on the Otago Peninsula)
? Google Maps:
8) Seacliff Lunatic Asylum site (former site of Lawson’s asylum)
? Location: Coast Road, Seacliff, Otago Region, New Zealand (approx access near Russell Road off Coast Road, north of Dunedin)
? Google Maps:
Note on Park’s School (Lawson’s original “Park’s School”)
The original Park’s School building survives as a private residence and does not have a formal public address today in its historic context. The historic original was in William Street, Lawrence, South Otago — now repurposed and not publicly listed with a current street address.
2. UNION BANK OF AUSTRALASIA
Nineteenth-century society was newly democratic, but architectural expression maintained order by using the classical style for commercial buildings and keeping Gothic for churches and schools. Lawson’s bank projects an image of tradition, security and solidity by using the colonnade and projecting pediment of a Greek temple which is perfectly symmetrical in composition. A giant (two-storeyed) order of four Corinthian columns carved by Louis Godfrey, carry an enormous entablature and create a portico with the eight engaged pilasters behind, all elements which give the impression of stateliness and formality.
3. MUNICIPAL CHAMBERS
In 1874 the Municipal Corporation of Dunedin called for designs for a building for its Octagon site to express the importance and wealth that the gold rush had given to the city. Council chambers and offices, a hall that could seat 2000 people, an observation tower with a clock, accommodation for the fire brigade and its appliances as well as a market on the English model, all had to be included. Lawson was actually second place getter in the competition, but as a Dunedin resident got the commission to supervise construction and saw to it that his own design was used.
With a Port Chalmers stone base and Oamaru limestone superstructure the building occupied a difficult site and had a hefty price of £20,390 when the contract was let in February 1878, yet was able to be officially opened for business just over two years later on 25 May 1880.
Using a façade design based on the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo dominated by a grand tower, Lawson’s essay in Vitruvian proportions and restraint in classical architecture has become a landmark building.
The rusticated stonework on the lowest level and the column-framed windows show his knowledge of George Gilbert Scott’s recently completed Colonial Office, Whitehall (1868) although there is no statuary along the roofline in Lawson’s design. Like the Union Bank, the Municipal Chambers suggest dignity and sensible judgement with a symmetrical building governed by simple, geometric forms, monumental proportions and plenty of smooth surfaces.
4. TRINITY WESLEYAN CHURCH
Officially opened on 10 July 1870, Trinity was Dunedin’s first Moray Place church. It was originally intended to have a spire topping the square tower at the street corner. Like First Church, it is a Gothic Revival building and its imposing siting and style is the legacy of the Reverend Alfred Fitchett, who was minister from 1867–1870. Described as a cultured man, his knowledge of ecclesiastical architecture would have matched Lawson’s own, and the building is an unconventional and asymmetrical response to the problem of finding an architectural language appropriate to Methodism.
An independent thinker, Fitchett published a paper supporting Darwin in 1876, then became an Anglican priest, and was the first Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in 1894. The church was sold to the Fortune Theatre in 1979.
5. OTAGO BOYS’ HIGH SCHOOL
Baronial in design, and visible from many parts of Dunedin, Lawson’s towering Otago Boys’ High School rises 38 metres above Arthur Street at its highest point. Skilled in constructional polychromy, the Victorian Gothic architect’s method of creating pattern out of arrangements which emphasised the natural colours of the materials used, Lawson envisaged three types of stone to be used in the construction: dark Leith Valley basalt, lighter Port Chalmers breccia and creamy Oamaru limestone. Window embrasures and corners are picked out with lighter quoins from the main dark stone of the fabric of the building. With its many square turrets and towers, its chunky proportions and squat appearance, the style is more Tudor than Gothic, and could be described as ‘Jacobethan’, with inspiration from the English Renaissance (1550–1625) combining Elizabethan and Jacobean architectural styles.
6. PARK’S SCHOOL
On the left in the George O’Brien tableau of Lawson’s designs is the small Post Office that still stands on its hill in Lawrence, and below that in red brick with Oamaru stone facings is John Brown Park’s two-storeyed school in William Street. Now repainted white, this building is used as a private residence. Designed so that the classrooms all converged on a central oval space on one floor, the Lawson structure was intended as a model school building. Building plans were exhibited for the South District School at the 1889–90 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition but the design was too expensive for the Education Department to adopt.
7. KNOX CHURCH
Inducted as first minister of Knox Church in 1860, the popular Reverend Dr Donald McNaughton Stuart grew his congregation over the following decade to the extent that a competition for a new design for a church that would seat 1,000 people was advertised in 1871. Again first prize eluded Lawson, but he was appointed architect after a dispute over building materials with the original winner, David Ross. Lawson’s design uses Leith Valley andesite and Oamaru limestone to bold effect to create a chequered pattern on the corners of the tower and buttresses. Insistent that the building contract include a 50 metre spire (Lawson was wary of churches left incomplete for lack of funds) the church was completed to Lawson’s exact design in 1876 at a cost of £18,332 10s 7d. Sited at the corner of George and Pitt Streets, it has more elegant proportions than Trinity Methodist Church, but is appropriately distinguished from First Church in its more rugged finish with surfaces of the stone left textured with the pattern of their quarrying.
At the age of 67 in 1900, Lawson had ended his exile and returned to Dunedin to go into practice with his former pupil, James Louis Salmond (1868–1950). His reputation was rehabilitated and he was elected Vice-President of the Otago Institute of Architects, but the partnership was not to last long. In 1902 Lawson suddenly died, leaving behind three daughters and a son. His wife Jessie (née Sinclair Hepburn) whom he had married in 1864 in Dunedin was to survive him by a further 21 years, and was a stalwart member of the congregation of First Church, the cornerstone of Lawson’s legacy as an architect of Victorian Dunedin.
8. LARNACH CASTLE
As a prominent Dunedin architect, Lawson had the opportunity to design several houses for wealthy clients. “The Camp”, begun in 1871 for William Larnach, businessman and politician, now known as Larnach Castle, has been described as a castellated villa wrapped in a two storeyed verandah. Dominating the façade is a central tower with stair turret, but the encircling cast-iron glazed verandah owes more to the Crystal Palace Great Exhibition Hall of 1851 than it does to the solid stone walls of Scottish baronial castles, and is a concession to the warmer climes of the Southern Hemisphere. Reputedly taking 200 men three years to build, the interior took a further twelve years to be completed with imported marbles, Venetian glass and ornate carvings by Louis Godfrey. Following the death of his first wife in 1880, Larnach commissioned Lawson to design a miniature First Church for the Northern Cemetery for her tomb. Following heavy financial losses caused by the collapse of the Colonial Bank, Larnach (who had been Minister of Finance and Mines) committed suicide at Parliament House in Wellington and came to occupy the Lawson-designed mausoleum himself in 1898.
The Larnach tomb designed by Robert Lawson. Photo Roselyn Fauth Jan 2026.
9. SEACLIFF LUNATIC ASYLUM
Construction of Seacliff Hospital on the site 38 kilometres north of Dunedin commenced in 1879 despite discouraging geological reports from James Hector. He was particularly dubious about Lawson’s design for a massive tower. Lawson argued that the tower was not merely an architectural feature, but provided necessary surveillance over the buildings and grounds that had to house 500 patients and 50 staff. As early as 1883, plaster was falling and ominous cracks could be heard, and in 1903 a major slip made the northern wing uninhabitable. Found guilty of negligence by a Royal Commission of Enquiry in 1880, Lawson was forced to return to Melbourne. His Scottish baronial design, based on Norwich County Asylum in England, stood until 1942 when a fire swept through one of the women’s wards and 37 patients were burnt to death. In 1949 the tower had to be demolished because of earth movements, and by 1959, when patients were moved to Cherry Farm, little of the Lawson structure remained.
Credits
Brochure content developed by Linda Tyler and Ann Brooks in association with the Hocken Collections Library, University of Otago.
This is a partnership project between the Hocken Collections and Otago Settlers Museum.
Source: Inspired: The Dunedin Architecture of R. A. Lawson brochure, Otago Settlers Museum and Hocken Collections
