Dunedin Railway Station and Dunedin Law Courts

The Dunedin Law Courts is a notable historic building in central

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 ...

, in the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

. They are located at the corner of Lower Stuart Street and Anzac Square, directly opposite the city's historic

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

. Since 1902, the building has been used as the city's law courts, and contains four court rooms, including the ornate High Court, as well as housing the offices and library of the

Law Society A law society is an association of lawyers with a regulatory role that includes the right to supervise the training, qualifications, and conduct of lawyers. Where there is a distinction between barristers and solicitors, solicitors are regulated ...

Architecture

The Law Courts building was one of the first major works to be designed by Government architect John Campbell, and was built in 1901–02 at a cost of £20,000 and opened in April 1902.Knight, H., and Wales, N. (1988) ''Buildings of Dunedin''. Dunedin: John McIndoe. . p. 95 The Law Courts are located alongside the former Dunedin Central Police Station, another Campbell building, though in a completely different style. While the 1890s police station (which was actually the city's

gaol A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, English language in England, standard English, Australian English, Australian, and Huron Historic Gaol, historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention cen ...

for most of its existence) was deliberately modelled in a Queen Anne style uncommon in New Zealand but designed to imitate London's New Scotland Yard (now the Norman Shaw Buildings), the Law Courts are in decorative but stern

Victorian Gothic 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 ...

style similar to the buildings of Dunedin's

University of Otago Registry Building The University of Otago Registry Building, also known as the Clocktower Building, is a Victorian and later structure in the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. It stands next to the banks of the Water of Leith and is constructed from contrasting dark ...

.McGill, D., & Sheehan, G., (1997) ''Landmarks: Notable historic buildings of New Zealand.'' Auckland:Godwit Publishing. . pp. 228–9 As is common with many of Dunedin's more substantial historic structures (including the railway station opposite) the Law Courts are constructed of dark

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 ...

ornamented with lighter

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, e ...

, a local compacted

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

mined to the north of Dunedin, and is topped with a roof of slate and granite. The main entrance to the court sits at the foot of a short tower which is decorated with an un-blindfolded statue of Justice in Italian white marble.

Historic precinct

The building has a category I classification on the

New Zealand Historic Places Trust 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 ...

Allied Press Building Allied Press is an independent New Zealand media and publishing company based in Dunedin. The company's main asset is the ''Otago Daily Times'', New Zealand's oldest daily newspaper. Allied Press has a number of other daily and community ne ...

and buildings of the

Toitū Otago Settlers Museum The Toitū Otago Settlers Museum is a regional history museum in Dunedin, New Zealand. Its brief covers the territory of the old Otago Province, that is, New Zealand from the Waitaki River south, though its main focus is the city of Dunedin. It ...

together form an impressive precinct close to the heart of the city, stretching south along the city's one-way street system (part of State Highway 1) to Queen's Gardens and up Lower Stuart Street towards the city centre, The Octagon. Dunedin Law Courts Hotel

One of the city's most historic public houses and hostelries, the Law Courts Hotel, is located close to the courts in Lower Stuart Street, in a large

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

building (also listed by the Historic Places Trust, Category II) directly opposite the Allied Press Building (the offices of the city's main newspaper, the ''

Otago Daily Times The ''Otago Daily Times'' (ODT) is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ''ODT'' is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a co ...

''). The prime location of this hotel near these two premises has greatly contributed to its history, as has its longevity (having originally been founded as the Auld Scotland Hotel in 1863).Price, M.,
For sale: A right royal piece of history
, ''Otago Daily Times'', 4 August 2009. Retrieved 23 August 2014.

References

External links

{{coord, 45, 52, 32, S, 170, 30, 27, E, region:NZ-OTA_type:railwaystation_source:dewiki, display=title Law courts NZHPT Category I listings in Otago Courthouses in New Zealand 1902 establishments in New Zealand Tourist attractions in Dunedin 1900s architecture in New Zealand John Campbell (architect) buildings Central Dunedin