Nathaniel Young Armstrong Wales (1832 – 3 November 1903) was a 19th-century architect,

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

, and Mayor in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, Otago, New Zealand.

Biography

Wales was born in

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

, England. He trained as an architect in

Jedburgh Jedburgh (; gd, Deadard; sco, Jeddart or ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the historic county of Roxburghshire, the name of which was randomly chosen for Operation Jedburgh in s ...

, Scotland. He joined the

Victorian gold rush The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony, and an influx of population growth and financial capit ...

in its early days and then migrated to Dunedin in 1861. He was employed by the architect William Mason and in 1871 joined him as a partner in the firm. He represented the City of Dunedin electorate from to 1875, when he retired. He was later

Mayor of Dunedin The Mayor of Dunedin is the head of the local government, the city council of Dunedin, New Zealand. The Mayor's role is "to provide leadership to the other elected members of the territorial authority, be a leader in the community and perform c ...

from 1895 to 1896. Coincidentally, Wales' partner Mason had held the same position during the 1860s.

Notable designs

One of his notable designs is his own house at 38 Belgrave Crescent, which was built from stones quarried on the site. He designed the New Zealand Insurance Company Building, which is located on the corner of Queens Gardens and Crawford Street, and which is registered as a Category I heritage by

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...

References

1832 births 1903 deaths Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Mayors of Dunedin Architects from Dunedin New Zealand MPs for Dunedin electorates English emigrants to New Zealand 19th-century New Zealand politicians {{NewZealand-architect-stub