Inspired: The Dunedin Architecture of R. A. Lawson

R. A. Lawson was one of New Zealand’s leading 19th century architects and was responsible for many of Dunedin’s most notable buildings.

Lawson was born in Scotland in 1833 and was educated in Perth and Edinburgh. At the age of 21 he emigrated to Australia and is said to have completed a design for a great Gothic church on the voyage. In 1862 he moved to Dunedin, having won the competition for the design of First Church, and was in much demand as an architect for the next twenty-five years. He withdrew to Melbourne at the end of the 1980s but returned to Dunedin and died in the city in 1902.

Lawson’s buildings are in a variety of styles: his general principle was to use classical styles for commercial buildings and Gothic for churches and schools. Of the buildings on this trail, the Union Bank in Princes Street has the facade of a classical Greek temple with a portico of columns surmounted by a pediment. The Municipal Chambers in the Octagon is in the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo dominated by a grand tower. Otago Boys High School in Arthur Street is in English Renaissance style with several square turrets and towers. The style of the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum was Scottish baronial. On the other hand the two great Presbyterian churches, First Church in Moray Place and Knox Church in George Street, are both Gothic Revival buildings, as is the smaller Trinity Wesleyan Church in Stuart Street, now transformed into the Fortune Theatre.

This trail, which can be walked in a couple of hours, is a joint project of the University of Otago’s Hocken Collections and the Otago Settlers Museum, from where copies of the printed brochure can be obtained.

Click here to download Inspired: The Dunedin Architecture of R. A. Lawson (1254Kb)