Benjamin Mountfort
Benjamin Mountfort | |
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![]() Mountfort around 1875 | |
Born | Benjamin Woolfield Mountfort 13 March 1825 Birmingham,England |
Died | 15 March 1898 Christchurch,New Zealand | (aged 73)
Resting place | Holy Trinity Avonside Cemetery |
Occupation | Architect |
Years active | 1852–1897 |
Spouse | Emily Elizabeth Newman |
Children | 9 |
Parent(s) | Thomas Mountfort Susannah Mountfort |
Buildings | Selected buildings |
Benjamin Woolfield Mountfort(13 March 1825 – 15 March 1898) was an English emigrant to New Zealand, where he became one of the country's most prominent 19th-century architects. He was instrumental in shaping the city ofChristchurch's unique architectural identity and culture, and was appointed the first official Provincial Architect of the developing province ofCanterbury.Heavily influenced by theAnglo-Catholicphilosophy behind early Victorian architecture, he is credited with importing theGothic revivalstyle to New Zealand. His Gothic designs constructed in both wood and stone in the province are considered unique to New Zealand. Today, he is considered the founding architect of the province of Canterbury.
Early life
[edit]Mountfort was born on 13 March 1825 inBirmingham,an industrial town in theMidlandsof England.[1]He was the son of perfume manufacturer and jeweller Thomas Mountfort and his wife Susanna (née Woolfield). As a young adult he moved to London, where he was an early pupil ofGeorge Gilbert Scott(from 1841 to 1846). He also studied architecture under the Anglo-Catholic[2]architectRichard Cromwell Carpenter,whose medievalGothicstyle of design was to have a lifelong influence on Mountfort.[3]After completion of his training in 1848, Mountfort practised architecture in London. He married Emily Elizabeth Newman on 20 August 1850, and 18 days later the couple emigrated to New Zealand.[4]They were some of the first settlers to the province of Canterbury, arriving on one of the famedFirst Four Ships,theCharlotte-Janeon 16 December 1850.[1]These first settlers, known as "The Pilgrims",[5]have their names engraved on marble plaques inCathedral Square,Christchurch, in front of the cathedral that Mountfort helped to design.[6]
New Zealand
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/Canterbury_College.jpg/200px-Canterbury_College.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/CanterburyCollegeGreatHall_gobeirne.jpg/200px-CanterburyCollegeGreatHall_gobeirne.jpg)
Mountfort arrived in Canterbury full of ambition and drive to begin designing in 1850 as one of a wave of settlers encouraged to immigrate to the new colony of New Zealand by the British Government.[7][8]With him and his wife from England also came his brother Charles, sister Susannah, and Charles' wife, all five of them aged between 21 and 26. Life in New Zealand at first was hard and disappointing: Mountfort found that there was little call for architects. Christchurch was little more than a large village of basic wooden huts on a windswept plain.
The new émigré's architectural life in New Zealand had a disastrous beginning. His first commission in New Zealand was theChurch of the Most Holy TrinityinLyttelton,built in 1852 byIsaac Luck.[9][10]The building proved vulnerable to high winds and was considered unsafe. It was demolished in 1857.[9]This calamity was attributed to the use of unseasoned wood and his lack of knowledge of the local building materials. Whatever the cause, the result was a crushing blow to his reputation.[1]A local newspaper called him "... a half-educated architect whose buildings... have given anything but satisfaction, he being evidently deficient in all knowledge of the principles of construction, though a clever draughtsman and a man of some taste.".[3]
Due to this blow to his reputation, he began running a stationery shop, working as a newspaper agent, and giving drawing lessons until 1857 to supplement his architectural work.[1]It was during this period in the architectural wilderness that he developed a lifelong interest in photography and supplemented his meagre income by taking photographic portraits.[11]
Mountfort was aFreemasonand an early member of the Lodge of Unanimity,[12]the main building of which he designed in 1863.[13][14]The Lodge of Unanimity was the firstMasonic Lodgein theSouth Island.[15]
Return to architecture
[edit]In 1857 he returned to architecture and entered into a business partnership with his sister Susannah's new husband, Isaac Luck. Mountfort's career received a fillip when he was commissioned to design the St John's Anglican church atWaikouaitiin Otago. A small timber structure in the Gothic style, it was completed on 19 December 1858 on land donated by the ex-whalerJohnny Jones.It is still in use as a church, the oldest such structure in southern New Zealand.[16]Now within the boundaries of the city ofDunedinits simple pit-sawn timber interior successfully conjures a sense of spirituality.
Christchurch was under heavy development at this time, as it had just been granted city status and the new administrative capital of the province of Canterbury. This provided Mountfort and Luck ample opportunity to practice their trade. In 1855 they produced a preliminary design for the newCanterbury Provincial Council Buildingsin timber. The buildings were constructed from 1857 to 1859, but in a more limited form than the original design. As the Provincial Council gained new functions with growth in the population and economy of the province, the buildings were enlarged with a North wing in stone and aniron clock towerfrom 1859 to 1860, and further enlarged with a stone council chamber and refreshment rooms in 1864–65.[11][17]The buildings today are regarded as one of Mountfort's most important works.[1]
From the exterior, the building appears austere, as was much of Mountfort's early work: a central tower dominates two flanking gabled wings in the Gothic revival style.[18]However the interior was a riot of colour and medievalism as perceived through Victorian eyes; it included stained glass windows, and a large double-faced clock, thought to be one of only five around the globe. The chamber is decorated in a rich, almostRuskinesquestyle, with carvings by a local sculptorWilliam Brassington.Included in the carvings are representations of indigenous New Zealand species.[19]
Gothic architecture
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/St_Augustine%27s._Waimate._NZ.jpg/300px-St_Augustine%27s._Waimate._NZ.jpg)
The Gothic revival style of architecture began to gain in popularity from the late 18th century as aromanticbacklash against the moreclassicaland formal styles which had predominated the previous two centuries.[20]At the age of 16, Mountfort acquired two books written by the Gothic revivalistAugustus Pugin:The True Principles of Christian or Pointed ArchitectureandAn Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture.From this time onwards, Mountfort was a disciple of Pugin's strong Anglo-Catholic architectural values.[21]These values were further cemented in 1846, at the age of 21, Mountfort became a pupil of Richard Cromwell Carpenter.[1]
Carpenter was, like Mountfort, a devout Anglo-Catholic and subscribed to the theories of Tractarianism, and thus to theOxfordandCambridge Movements.[22]These conservative theological movements taught that true spirituality and concentration in prayer was influenced by the physical surroundings, and that the medieval church had been more spiritual than that of the early 19th century. As a result of this theology, medieval architecture was declared to be of greater spiritual value than the classicalPalladian-based styles of the 18th and early 19th centuries.[23]Augustus Pugin even pronounced that medieval architecture was the only form suitable for a church and that Palladianism was almost heretical. Such theory was not confined to architects, and continued well into the 20th century. This school of thought led intellectuals such as the English poetEzra Poundto preferRomanesquebuildings toBaroqueon the grounds that the latter represented an abandonment of the world of intellectual clarity and light for a set of values based on the notion of hell and the increasing dominance of society by bankers, a breed to be despised.[24]
Whatever the philosophy behind the Gothic revival, in London the 19th-century rulers of the British Empire felt that Gothic architecture was suitable for the colonies because of its then strong Anglican connotations, representing hard work, morality and conversion of native peoples.[25]The irony of this was that many of Mountfort's churches were for Roman Catholics, as so many of the new immigrants were of Irish origin.[26]To the many middle-class English empire builders, Gothic represented a nostalgic reminder of the parishes left behind in Britain with their true medieval architecture; these were the patrons who chose the architects and designs.[27]
Mountfort's early Gothic work in New Zealand was of the more severe Anglican variety as practised by Carpenter, with talllancet windowsand manygables.[28]As his career progressed, and he had proved himself to the employing authorities, his designs developed into a more European form, with towers, turrets and high ornamental roof lines in the French manner, a style which was in no way peculiar to Mountfort but was endorsed by such architects asAlfred Waterhousein Britain.[29]
Mountfort's skill as an architect lay in adapting these flamboyant styles to suit the limited materials available in New Zealand.[11]While wooden churches are plentiful in certain parts of the US, they are generally of a simple classic design, whereas Mountfort's wooden churches in New Zealand are as much ornate Gothic fantasies as those he designed in stone. Perhaps the flamboyance of his work can be explained in a statement of principles he and his partner Luck wrote when bidding to win the commission to design Government House, Auckland in 1857:
Accordingly, we see in Nature's buildings, the mountains and hills; not regularity of outline but diversity; buttresses, walls and turrets as unlike each other as possible, yet producing a graduation of effect not to be approached by any work, moulded to regularity of outline. The simple study of an oak or an elm tree would suffice to confute the regularity theory.[30]
Provincial Architect
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/Christchurch_Cathedral_%281%29.jpg/200px-Christchurch_Cathedral_%281%29.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/Christ_ChurchCathedral1_gobeirne.jpg/200px-Christ_ChurchCathedral1_gobeirne.jpg)
As the "Provincial Architect" —a newly created position to which Mountfort was appointed in 1864[31]—Mountfort designed a wooden church for the Roman Catholic community of the city of Christchurch. This wooden erection was subsequently enlarged several times until it was renamed a cathedral.[1]It was eventually replaced in 1901 by theCathedral of the Blessed Sacrament,a more permanent stone building by the architectFrank Petre,though thecenotaphby Mountfort was preserved.[32]Mountfort often worked in wood, a material he in no way regarded as an impediment to the Gothic style,[33]though he was unique in this respect as Gothic buildings were often created from stone and mortar.[34]Between 1869 and 1882 he designed theCanterbury Museumand subsequentlyCanterbury Collegeand its clock tower in 1877.[1]
Construction on the buildings for the Canterbury College, which later became theUniversity of Canterbury,began with the construction of the clock tower block. This edifice, which opened in 1877, was the first purpose built university in New Zealand. The College was completed in two subsequent stages in Mountfort's usual Gothic style.[1]
George Gilbert Scott,the architect ofChristChurch Cathedral,and an empathiser of Mountfort's teacher and mentor Carpenter, wished his former pupil Mountfort to be theclerk of worksand supervising architect of the new cathedral project.[21]This proposal was originally vetoed by the Cathedral Commission.[3]Nevertheless, following delays in the building work attributed to financial problems, the position of supervising architect was finally given to Mountfort in 1873. Mountfort was responsible for several alterations to the absentee main architect's design, most obviously the tower and the westporch.He also designed thefont,the Harper Memorial, and the north porch.[11]The cathedral was however not finally completed until 1904, six years after Mountfort's death. The cathedral is very much in the European decorated Gothic style with an attachedcampaniletower beside the body of the cathedral, rather than towering directly above it in the more English tradition.[35]
In 1872 Mountfort became a founding member of the Canterbury Association of Architects, a body which was responsible for all subsequent development of the new city. Mountfort was now at the pinnacle of his career.[20]Mountfort notably altered the use of a segmented arch rather than one in the Romanesque style; the latter of which was considered by Augustus Pugin to be fundamentally important to the Gothic style. The college posed a challenge in its main hall; on the hall's completion in 1882, it was the largest public space in Christchurch.[36]Additionally, a level of detail not possible in previous works was present in the hall's design due to the superior funding for the college. The completion of the first stage was met with praise and optimism, though extensions such as a biological lab were added in the early 1890s.[37]By the 1880s, Mountfort was hailed as New Zealand's premierecclesiasticalarchitect, with over forty churches to his credit.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Canterbury_Museum1.jpg/300px-Canterbury_Museum1.jpg)
In 1888, he designed St John's Cathedral inNapier.[1]This brick construction was demolished in the disastrous1931 earthquakethat destroyed much of Napier.[38]Between 1886 and 1897, Mountfort worked on one of his largest churches, the woodenSt Mary's,the cathedral church ofAuckland.Covering 9,000 square feet (840 m2), St Mary's is the largest and last timber church built by Mountfort,[39]and the largest wooden Gothic church in the world.[1]At its completion, it was said that "in point of design, completeness and beauty [it] reaches a high level mark not yet approached in the diocese". The emphasis placed on the sweeping roof by the great aisle windows struck a balance to the great area the church enclosed. In 1982 the entire church, complete with its stained glass windows, was transported to a new site, across the road from its former position where a new cathedral was to be built. St Mary's church was consecrated in 1898, one of Mountfort's final grand works.[40]
Outside of his career, Mountfort was keenly interested in the arts and a talented artist, although his artistic work appears to have been confined to art pertaining to architecture, his first love. He was a devout member of theChurch of Englandand a member of many Anglican church councils anddiocesecommittees.[41]
Mountfort's later years were blighted by professional jealousies, as his position as the province's first architect was assailed by new and younger men influenced by new orders of architecture. Benjamin Mountfort died in 1898, aged 73. He was buried in the cemetery ofHoly Trinity Avonside,the church which he had extended in 1876.[1][11]
Legacy
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/CanterburyProvincialCouncilBuildings1_gobeirne.jpg/200px-CanterburyProvincialCouncilBuildings1_gobeirne.jpg)
Evaluating Mountfort's works today, one has to avoid judging them against a background of similar designs in Europe. In the 1860s, New Zealand was a developing country, where materials and resources freely available in Europe were conspicuous by their absence. When available they were often of inferior quality, as Mountfort discovered with the unseasoned wood in his first disastrous project. His first buildings in his new homeland were often too tall, or steeply pitched, failing to take account of the non-European climate and landscape. However, he soon adapted, and developed his skill in working with crude and unrefined materials.[11]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Sunny_Side_Asylum.jpg/200px-Sunny_Side_Asylum.jpg)
Christchurch and its surrounding areas are unique in New Zealand for their particular style of Gothic architecture, something that can be directly attributed to Benjamin Mountfort. While Mountfort did accept small private domestic commissions, he is today better known for the designs executed for public, civic bodies, and the church. His monumental Gothic stone civic buildings in Christchurch, which would not be out of place in Oxford or Cambridge, are an amazing achievement over adversity of materials. His hallmark wooden Gothic churches today epitomise the 19th-century province of Canterbury. They are accepted, and indeed appear as part of the landscape. In this way, Benjamin Mountfort's achievement was to make his favoured style of architecture synonymous with the identity of the province of Canterbury.[28]Following his death, one of his seven children,Cyril,continued to work in his father's Gothic style well into the 20th century.[11]Cyril Mountfort was responsible for the church ofSt Luke's in the City,which was an unexecuted design of his father's.[42]In this way, and through the daily public use of his many buildings, Mountfort's legacy lives on. He ranks today with his contemporaryR A Lawsonas one of New Zealand's greatest 19th-century architects.[1]
Selected buildings
[edit]Christchurch
[edit]- Beth El Synagogue(first building), 1864
- Christ's College Chapel(1880s extensions)
- Christchurch Arts Centrebuildings, 1882
- Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings,1858–1865 (partially collapsed in the2011 Christchurch earthquake.[43]To be restored)
- Canterbury Museum,Central Christchurch, 1869–1882
- Church of the Good Shepherd,Phillipstown, 1884–1885 (demolished 2011)
- ChristChurch Cathedral,1864–1904 (partially collapsed in the 2011 Canterbury earthquake. Under restoration)
- Holy Trinity AvonsideChurch Chancel, 1874–1877 (photo) (demolished 2011)
- Trinity Church, Christchurch,1872
- St John the Baptist Church,1864–1865 (demolished 2011)
- St Paul's Anglican Church,Papanui, 1876–1877
- Sunnyside Hospital,Hillmorton, 1881–1893[44](demolished 2007)
Elsewhere in Canterbury
[edit]- Most Holy Trinity, Lyttelton, 1852 (demolished 1857)
- St. Augustine's Church, Waimate 1872
- St Stephen's, Lincoln 1877
- St John's, Rangiora.
- St Bartholomew's, Kaiapoi (1855)
North Island
[edit]- St John's Cathedral,Napier,1886–1888
- St Mary's Church,1886 (relocated 1982)[45]
References
[edit]- ^abcdefghijklmLochhead 1990
- ^Homan, Roger (2006).The Art of the Sublime.Ashgate Publishing. p. 130.ISBN978-0-7546-5073-7.
- ^abc"Benjamin Mountfort and the Gothic Revival".Christchurch Libraries.Retrieved on 11 August 2008.
- ^Lochhead 1999, p. 51
- ^"The First Four Ships".Christchurch Libraries.Retrieved on 12 August 2008.
- ^"Cathedral Square First Four Ships Commemorative Plaques".Christchurch City Council. Archived fromthe originalon 16 October 2008.Retrieved on 13 August 2008.
- ^Smith, p. 54
- ^The 1966 Encyclopedia of New Zealand claims that he studied withGeorge Gilbert Scottbefore this.
- ^abLochhead 1999,pp. 66–76.
- ^"Isaac Luck (1817–1881)".Christchurch City Libraries.Retrieved2 June2011.
- ^abcdefgPascoe, Paul; McLintock, A. H., eds. (1966)."Mountfort, Benjamin Woolfield".An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand.Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
- ^"Unamity's Jewel"(PDF).Freemasons' Gazette.30(1). New Zealand Freemasons: 21. 2002. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 25 February 2009.
- ^"Christchurch City Council Archives – 18–25 October 2000 Heritage Week".Christchurch City Council. Archived fromthe originalon 19 October 2008.Retrieved12 August2008.Retrieved on 12 August 2008.
- ^"Christ Church City Council Archives – 13–20 October 2000 Heritage Week".Christchurch City Council. Archived fromthe originalon 16 October 2008.Retrieved12 August2008.Retrieved on 12 August 2008.
- ^"Celebrating 150 years of English Constitution Freemasonry in New Zealand".Freemason Southern Star Lodge. Archived fromthe originalon 1 October 2008.Retrieved on 12 August 2008.
- ^Porter, 1983, p.166; Otago Daily Times, 19 December 2008
- ^Lochhead 1999, pp. 93–117
- ^"Canterbury Provincial Government Buildings".New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero.Heritage New Zealand.Retrieved22 August2008.
- ^"Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings: Stone Chamber and Bellamys'".Christchurch City Council. Archived fromthe originalon 19 September 2008.Retrieved on 22 August 2008.
- ^abLochhead 1999, "Introduction"
- ^ab"B.W. Mountfort and the Gothic Revival: a Centennial Exhibition".Christchurch Art Gallery. Archived fromthe originalon 16 October 2008.Retrieved on 25 August 2008.
- ^"The Nineteenth-Century High Church: Tractarianism, the Oxford Movement, and Ritualism".National University of Singapore. Archived fromthe originalon 21 September 2008.Retrieved on 26 August 2008.
- ^Livingston, James C.; et al. (2006).Modern Christian Thought.Fortress Press. p. 163.ISBN978-0-8006-3795-8.
- ^Pound, Ezra; Zinnes, Harriet (1980).Ezra Pound and the Visual Arts.New Directions Publishing.ISBN978-0-8112-0772-0.
- ^Kruft, Hanno-Walter; Taylor, Ronald (1996).A History of Architectural Theory.Princeton Architectural Press. p. 330.ISBN978-1-56898-010-2.
- ^Smith, p. 81
- ^Scase, Wendy; Copeland, Rita; Lawton, David (2005).New Medieval Literatures.Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. p. 11.ISBN978-0-19-927365-2.
- ^abGardner, W.J; et al. (1971).A History of Canterbury.Whitcombe & Tombs. p. 483.ISBN978-0-7233-0321-3.
- ^Daniels, Rebecca; Brandwood, Geoff (2003).Ruskin & Architecture.Spire Books. p. 172.ISBN978-0-9543615-1-8.
- ^Walker, Paul."The 'Maori House' at the Canterbury Museum".University of Auckland. Archived fromthe originalon 14 October 2008.Retrieved on 11 August 2008.
- ^Fletcher, p. 1306
- ^"Appendix Five: Religious Art in Central Christchurch Accessible to the Public".Christchurch Art Gallery. Archived fromthe originalon 18 October 2008.Retrieved on 4 September 2008.
- ^Turner, Jane (1996).The Dictionary of Art.Grove's Dictionaries. p.230.ISBN978-1-884446-00-9.
- ^Smith, Thomas R. (2008).Architecture, Gothic and Renaissance.Kessinger Publishing. p. 143.ISBN978-1-4367-8070-4.
- ^"The Belltower and Spire, ChristChurch Cathedral".Christchurch Libraries.Retrieved11 September2008.
- ^Lochhead 1999, pp. 274–277
- ^Lochhead 1999, p. 283
- ^Lochhead, Ian (1997). "A Pitiful Pile of Bricks".Fabrications.8:64–86.doi:10.1080/10331867.1997.10525110.
- ^Lochhead 1999, p. 174
- ^Lochhead 1999, pp. 175–178
- ^Fletcher, p. 1308
- ^"History of St Luke's in the City".St Luke's in the City. Archived fromthe originalon 27 September 2011.Retrieved on 14 September 2008.
- ^Scott, Don."The old Canterbury Provincial Chambers (image)".The Press.Retrieved23 February2011.
- ^Lochhead 1999,Appendix 3
- ^"Benjamin Mountfort".New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero.Heritage New Zealand.
Sources
[edit]- Fletcher, Banister (1996).Sir Banister Fletcher's a History of Architecture.Architectural Press, 20th ed.ISBN978-0-7506-2267-7.
- Lochhead, Ian (1999).A Dream of Spires: Benjamin Mountfort and the Gothic revival.Canterbury: Canterbury University Press.ISBN0-908812-85-X.
- Lochhead, Ian J."Mountfort, Benjamin Woolfield 1825–1898".Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.Ministry for Culture and Heritage.Retrieved7 April2011.
- Porter, Frances (ed) (1983). "Historic Buildings of New Zealand, South Island". Auckland: Methuen New Zealand.ISBN0-456-03120-0.
- Smith, Phillipa M. (2005).A Concise History of New Zealand.Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-83438-4.
- Taylor, C.R.H. (1929).The Gothic Beauties and History of the Canterbury Provincial Buildings.Canterbury Provincial Buildings Board.
External links
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Contemporary references to Mountfort's reputationArchived26 August 2004 at theWayback Machine
- Mountfort centenary
- The architectural heritage of Christchurch. 6, Church of the Good Shepherd
- Architects from Birmingham, West Midlands
- Gothic Revival architects
- New Zealand ecclesiastical architects
- 1825 births
- 1898 deaths
- Architects from Christchurch
- English emigrants to New Zealand
- Architects of cathedrals
- English ecclesiastical architects
- Burials at Holy Trinity Avonside
- New Zealand Freemasons
- Canterbury Pilgrims
- 19th-century New Zealand architects
- English Anglo-Catholics
- New Zealand Anglo-Catholics
- People associated with the Canterbury Society of Arts