The
University of Otago
, image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg
, image_size =
, caption = University clock tower
, motto = la, Sapere aude
, mottoeng = Dare to be wise
, established = 1869; 152 years ago
, type = Public research collegiate u ...
Registry Building, also known as the Clocktower Building, is a
Victorian and later structure in the city of
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 ...
, New Zealand. It stands next to the banks of the
Water of Leith
The Water of Leith (Scottish Gaelic: ''Uisge Lìte'') is the main river flowing near central Edinburgh, Scotland, and flows into the port of Leith where it flows into the sea via the Firth of Forth.
Name
The name ''Leith'' may be of Britto ...
and is constructed from contrasting dark Leith Valley
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
and
Oamaru stone
Oamaru stone, sometimes called whitestone, is a hard, compact limestone, quarried at Weston, near Oamaru in Otago, New Zealand.
Oamaru stone was used on many of the grand public buildings in the towns and cities of the southern South Island, es ...
, with a foundation of
Port Chalmers
Port Chalmers is a town serving as the main port of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Port Chalmers lies ten kilometres inside Otago Harbour, some 15 kilometres northeast of Dunedin's city centre.
History
Early Māori settlement
The origi ...
breccia
Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix.
The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of di ...
. The building houses the administrative centre of the university, and the office of the
Vice-Chancellor
A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system.
In most Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth and former Commonwealth n ...
. It has a Category I listing with
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 ...
.
It is the principal element of the Clocktower complex, the group of
Gothic revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
buildings at the heart of the University of Otago's campus (
University of Otago Clocktower complex
The University of Otago Clocktower complex is a group of architecturally and historically significant buildings in the center of the University of Otago campus. Founded in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1869, the University of Otago was the expression o ...
). The most prominent of the group it was designed and re-designed by
Maxwell Bury
Maxwell Bury (28 July 1825 – 9 September 1912) was an English-born architect who was active in New Zealand in the 19th century. He is best remembered for his buildings for the University of Otago.
Life
Born in Nottinghamshire on 28 July 1825, ...
(1825–1912) and
Edmund Anscombe
Edmund Anscombe (8 February 1874 – 9 October 1948) was one of the most important figures to shape the architectural and urban fabric of New Zealand. He was important, not only because of the prolific nature of his practice and the quality of ...
(1874–1948), between the 1870s and the 1920s. This resulted in a revised geometry and a change to the original conception.
History
Bury first conceived a classical building which he re-dressed in the Gothic manner to suit the university council's desires. This is like the genesis of Sir
Charles Barry
Sir Charles Barry (23 May 1795 – 12 May 1860) was a British architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster (also known as the Houses of Parliament) in London during the mid-19th century, but also responsi ...
’s and
A. W. N. Pugin’s designs for the
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...
which is symmetrical in plan but late Gothic in its realisation. For his principal range Bury proposed a building with a single forward gable at its northern extremity, a clock tower and gabled entrance at its centre, and another, single forward gable at the south, housing a chapel. By 1879 the tower and the northern extension from it had been built.
![OrigplanPE2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/OrigplanPE2009.jpg)
Much later Anscombe extended this stub to the south. He designed the Oliver Wing, built in 1914, and the science extension, opened in 1922. He produced an asymmetrical composition in which the greater extent to the south was balanced by its terminal double gables.
One might regret the non-completion of Bury's original design but Anscombe's extrapolation is a ''tour-de-force''. The additional length makes the building more imposing while its subtle asymmetry adds to its character. While some Gothic revival buildings seem playful – like stage sets and not really convincing – the result here is different. The whole has an impressive asperity - it is austere - and at the same time, entertaining.
![AsbuiltRE2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/AsbuiltRE2009.jpg)
In 1968
Ted McCoy
Edward John McCoy (23 February 1925 – 17 January 2018), generally known as Ted McCoy, was a New Zealand architect whose practice was based in Dunedin. He designed the sanctuary of St Paul's Cathedral (completed 1970), and the Richardson (form ...
drew a parallel between this building and Sir
George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...
’s for
Glasgow University
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
, ...
which was finished in 1870. There are similarities although the settings are different: Scott's building is on a hilltop while this lies beside a river. Scott's building's main elevation, like the one Bury initially designed for Otago, is symmetrical with its tower and entrance at the centre. But the Otago building, as Anscombe completed it, gains something, because its disproportionately long southward reach exceeds one's expectation. Also, its apparently pragmatic extrapolation supports the impression it is a medieval building, extended over centuries without undue deference to an original plan.
The Otago building's tower is also something like Scott's for Glasgow, or his
St Pancras Station
St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It ...
tower in London. They have their origins in Flemish and Netherlandish civic buildings of the late Middle Ages but in this revived, Victorian form are part of a family which includes A.W. N. Pugin's for
Scarisbrick Hall
Scarisbrick Hall is a country house situated just to the south-east of the village of Scarisbrick in Lancashire, England.
History
Scarisbrick Hall was the ancestral home of the Scarisbrick family and dates back to the time of King Stephen (113 ...
and the tower housing
Big Ben
Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. The officia ...
on the Palace of Westminster.
For a long time the Otago tower was blind but in the 1930s Thomas Sidey, a local politician and a member of the university council, paid for a clock to be installed. In the 1950s the Ministry of Works recommended demolishing the building as an earthquake risk. Instead the university council strengthened it, with visible tie-rods, in the early 1960s. The original tall chimney stacks were first simplified and eventually removed.
![Otago clocktower race](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Otago_clocktower_race.jpg)
The chamber behind the north gable which used to house the library has accommodated the university council since 1965. The caretaker's house, visibly incorporated into the rear of the northernmost compartment externally, is now internally part of the administrative suite. Also in the 1960s part of the inner quadrangle wall, the east elevation, was elaborately demolished and rebuilt a short distance further eastward, blurring some original features. The tower's stone pinnacles were replaced with stainless steel caps, rendered in cement, in the same decade. The steeply raked upper and lower Oliver lecture theatres were stripped out in the 1980s.
[Ballantyne in Porter (ed), 1983 p.171.] Nevertheless, the exterior and some of the principal interior spaces, such as the tiled entrance and its handsome staircase, are much as they were when they were built.
Comparable buildings
The old
Canterbury College Canterbury College may refer to:
* Canterbury College (Indiana), U.S.
* Canterbury College (Waterford), Queensland, Australia
* Canterbury College (Windsor, Ontario), Canada
* Canterbury College, Kent, England
* Canterbury College, Oxford, England ...
’s clock tower building in Christchurch, now part of the Christchurch Arts Centre, is a directly comparable, if lesser structure in New Zealand. It was designed by
Benjamin Mountfort
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 of Christchurch's unique ...
, opened in 1877 and became part of a larger,
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
complex. The
Hunter Building
The Hunter Building is the original building of Victoria University of Wellington's Kelburn campus in Wellington, New Zealand. It is a major landmark in the Wellington region and closely associated and considered a symbol of the university. The ...
at
Victoria University of Wellington
Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand.
The university is well know ...
is a more distant parallel. It was opened in 1904, designed by Penty & Blake and represents the
Jacobethan
The Jacobethan or Jacobean Revival architectural style is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance (15 ...
manner. Still more distant in time, style and method of construction is the
University of Auckland
, mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work
, established = 1883; years ago
, endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021)
, budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021)
, chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant
, vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...
's clock tower building, also known as the Old Arts Building, completed in 1926 and designed by R.A. Lippincott in a very loosely interpreted Gothic manner. (It was built with a steel reinforced concrete frame.)
In Australia
Edmund Blacket
Edmund Thomas Blacket (25 August 1817 – 9 February 1883) was an Australian architect, best known for his designs for the University of Sydney, St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney and St. Saviour's Cathedral, Goulburn.
Arriving in Sydney from Engl ...
’s principal range for the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
is another building of parallel purpose and period, as is the
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...
’s
Venetian Gothic
Venetian Gothic is the particular form of Italian Gothic architecture typical of Venice, originating in local building requirements, with some influence from Byzantine architecture, and some from Islamic architecture, reflecting Venice's trading ...
Mitchell Building, designed by
William McMinn
William McMinn (1844–14 February 1884) was an Irish-born Australian surveyor and architect, based in Adelaide.
Early life
McMinn was born in Newry, County Down, Ireland, a son of Joseph McMinn (c. 1794 – 6 April 1874) and his wife Martha M ...
in 1882, although that is smaller than its Sydney or Dunedin counterparts.
![SydneyUniversity FrontLawns](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/SydneyUniversity_FrontLawns.jpg)
The principal building for
Ormond College
Ormond College is the largest of the residential colleges of the University of Melbourne located in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is home to around 350 undergraduates, 90 graduates and 35 professorial and academic residents.
Hi ...
, an affiliate of the
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...
, is also comparable. While it houses a residential college, not a university or its administration, it is another Victorian, university Gothic Revival building and was directly inspired by Scott’s structure for Glasgow. Its oldest part was opened in 1881; it was expanded in stages up to 1893 and then further in the 1920s and later. Like the Otago building it forms part of a quadrangle and has a clock tower. It was designed by
Joseph Reed for Presbyterian proprietors. It is undoubtedly a fine building but its symmetrical principal façade lacks the grand extension of Otago’s comparable elevation and the austerity of the latter’s rusticated bluestone. Nevertheless Ormond College matches, indeed it probably exceeds, the Dunedin building’s playfulness.
All these revivalist structures aimed to create what was really an illusion: as they were intended for universities, it was specifically that of a medieval cloister. They had to serve a practical purpose but needed also to support this fiction. Any assessment of them has to weigh how well they do that.
Among its peers the University of Otago’s clock tower building is distinguished by its scale and elaboration, but also by the degree of conviction it succeeds in bringing to this fantasy. The result is a structure of considerable dignity and grandeur.
Notes
References
*Ballantyne, Dorothy (1983). ‘Educational Buildings of Otago’ in Porter, Frances (ed), ''Historic Buildings of New Zealand South Island''. Auckland: Methuen New Zealand, pp. 170–177.
*Entwisle, Rosemary (1999). ''Dunedin’s Iconic Buildings: The Registry (Clocktower Building), University of Otago''. Dunedin: Port Daniel Press.
*Galer, Lois (comp.) (1989). ''Historic Buildings of Otago and Southland''. Wellington: New Zealand Historic Places Trust. .
*McCoy, E.J. & Blackman, J.G. (1968). ''Victorian City of New Zealand'', Dunedin: John McIndoe Ltd.
*McLean, G. (2002). ''100 Historic Places in New Zealand.'' Auckland:Hodder Moa Beckett.
*Morrell, W.P. (1969).''The University of Otago a Centennial History''. Dunedin: University of Otago Press.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:University of Otago Registry Building
NZHPT Category I listings in Otago
Buildings and structures of the University of Otago
Edmund Anscombe buildings
Maxwell Bury buildings
1870s architecture in New Zealand