Old St Paul's

242 Pages·2015·5.61 MB·English

Old St Paul’s
C O N S E RVAT I O N P L A N
for Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga

Old St Paul’s
34 Mulgrave Street, Wellington
C O N S E RVAT I O N P L A N
Report Prepared by
COCHRAN AND MURRAY
CONSERVATION ARCHITECTS
Chris Cochran MNZM, B Arch, FNZIA
Russell Murray B Arch, ANZIA
20 Glenbervie Terrace, Wellington, New Zealand
Phone 04 - 472 8847 Email ccc@clear. net. nz
and
MICHAEL KELLY
HERITAGE CONSULTANT
for
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga
63 Boulcott Street
WELLINGTON
Draft for public consultation, 16 October 2015
Old St Paul’s when it was a prominent landmark in Thorndon c. 1868. There is a cluster of houses in
Murphy Street on the far right, but otherwise, the Thorndon Flat has only scattered development.
ATL, ref. 10,9001/1
Front cover photo, the nave of Old St Paul’s, looking east, 2000.
Tony Kellaway.
Back cover photo, the foundation stone of Old St Paul’s.
Auckland Public Library, ref. GL:NZ M24 CD
Contents
1.0 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Commission 1
1.2 Ownership and Status 1
1.3 Development of the Plan 3
1.4 Acknowledgements 3
2.0 HISTORY 5
2.1 The Site of the Church 5
2.2 The Church 1864 – 2013 13
2.3 The Life of the Church 1866 – 1964 20
2.4 Decorating the Church 49
2.5 A New Cathedral 51
2.6 Restoration 1967 – 1980 56
2.7 The Fabric 1980 – 2014 63
2.8 A Place to Visit 65
2.9 Weddings, Funerals and Baptisms 68
2.10 The Grounds 68
2.11 The Architects and the Builder 74
2.12 Chronology of Events 78
2.13 Bibliography 85
3.0 DESCRIPTION 89
3.1 Description of the Building 89
3.2 The Site 98
4.0 SIGNIFICANCE 101
4.1 Statement of Significance 101
4.2 Heritage Inventory 105
5.0 INFLUENCES ON CONSERVATION 202
5.1 Terms of Acquisition 202
5.2 Owner’s Objectives 203
5.3 Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 204
5.4 Resource Management Act and District Plan Requirements 206
5.5 Building Act 208
5.6 Reserves Act 211
5.7 Risks 212
5.8 Standards 215
6.0 POLICIES 217
6.1 Principal Statement 217
6.2 Policies 217
6.3 Legislative Requirements 222
APPENDIX I 223
ICOMOS New Zealand Charter
for the Conservation of Places of Cultural Heritage Value
vi
1.0 INTR ODUCTION
1.1 Commission
This Conservation Plan is the result of a commission from Heritage New Zealand Pouhere
Taonga. It is jointly funded by Heritage New Zealand and the Friends of Old St Paul’s
Society.
The purpose of the plan is to establish management policies that will ensure that Old St
Paul’s, one of New Zealand most important historic buildings, is conserved to the highest
standards for present and future generations.
To this end, the plan outlines the history and defines the cultural heritage values of the
Church; it identifies conservation and legislative influences on the future management
and development of the building, and it sets out policies which, if followed, will ensure
that the heritage values of the building are preserved and enhanced. The plan is a revision
of the Old St Paul’s Conservation Plan (Kelly and Cochran, March 2001) for the New Zealand
Historic Places Trust. It varies from that document in being more comprehensive in most
parts, especially in the history section; it does not include information on the condition of
the building or its maintenance, which are dealt with separately but with reference to the
policies in this document.
1.2 Ownership and Status
Old St Paul’s Church, and the grounds it occupies at 34 Mulgrave Street, Wellington,
constitute an Historic Reserve under the Reserves Act 1977. The church and land are owned
by the Crown and are vested in Heritage New Zealand, gazette number 93/1467.
The responsibility for the care and maintenance of the property lies with Heritage New
Zealand Pouhere Taonga. They are supported in various ways by the Friends of Old St Paul’s
Society, which is an incorporated society dedicated to the well-being of this historic place.
The Department of Conservation is the administrator of the Reserves Act and has an over-
arching responsibility to ensure the reserve is managed effectively.
The legal description of the land is Part Lot 1 on Deposited Plan 8705;
CT 33C/126 Land Titles Office, Wellington.
The church and grounds are listed under the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act
2014 as Category I, listing number 38. The meaning and consequences of the listing are set
out in Section 5.3.
They are also listed as a heritage item on the Wellington City Council’s operative district
plan, 2000: Map 18, symbol 221. The consequences of this listing are set out in Section 5.4.
Opposite: Old St Paul’s in its original form soon after its completion.
Dorset Album, ATL, ref. 21154½
1
Survey plan of 1925, showing the grounds of Old St Paul’s. Note that the adjoining property on the north
boundary, now part of the grounds, is not shown on this plan. DP 8705, Land Titles Office
2
1.3 Development of the Plan
This plan was commissioned by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga; its commissioning
was encouraged by the Friends of Old St Paul’s, and is part funded by them. As described
earlier, it relies heavily on the conservation plan of 2001.
This document has been prepared by Cochran and Murray, Conservation Architects, and
Michael Kelly, Heritage Consultant. For other contributors, see the acknowledgements
below.
The format of the plan is based on the template contained in Guidelines for Preparing Conservation
Plans, G Bowron and J Harris, New Zealand Historic Places Trust, 2000.1 Other sources were
the ICOMOS New Zealand Charter for the Conservation of Places of Cultural Heritage Value, and the Guideline
for the Preparation of Conservation Plans, Department of Conservation, Wellington.
1.4 Acknowledgements
Because this plan draws heavily on the Conservation Plan of 2001, it is appropriate to
acknowledge all those that contributed to that document.
That plan could not have been written without the very significant (and unpaid)
contributions of Margaret and Bill Alington. The preparation of the first draft of the plan
(1998), fell to them.
Specialist contributions were also made by:
Jan Harris, chattels register and assessment;
Tony Kellaway, photography;
Win Clark, engineering assessment;
Graham Stewart, stained glass window report, and
Helen McCracken, additional research.
The following people contributed their ideas, and/or commented on the draft:
Richard Benge, Manager, Old St Paul’s;
Jane Aim, Chairperson, FOSP;
John Daniels, committee member, FOSP;
Warwick Greenwood, Treasurer, FOSP;
Crispin Kay, Deputy Chairman, FOSP
Viv Rickard, Manager, Central Regional Office, NZHPT, and
Peter Sheppard, former senior architect Ministry of Works and Development, in charge
of the restoration of Old St Paul’s 1967-80.
The contribution of several of these people will not be evident in the following pages,
since their work falls into Part 2 of the plan.
1 The New Zealand Historic Places Trust, abbreviated to NZHPT, was re-named Heritage New Zealand Pouhere
Taonga in April 2014. The earlier name is used in some contexts where it is historically accurate.
3
People who have contributed specifically to this document, and whose contribution is
gratefully acknowledged, include:
Amy Hobbs, Heritage Destinations Manager, Central, Heritage New Zealand;
Silke Bieda, Manager, Old St Paul’s, Heritage New Zealand;
Morris Love, Managing Director, Raukura Consultants, [email protected]
author of section 2.1;
Elizabeth Cox, Bay Heritage Consultants, [email protected]
author of sections 2.2 to 2.5;
Neil Aitken, Landscape Architect, for advice on landscape issues, and
Olaf Wehr-Candler, Pukerua Glass Studio Ltd, for advice and photographs of the stained
glass windows.
Photographs in the inventory were taken by Jim Simmons (those dated 2008) as part of
a Baseline Monitoring Survey, September 2008; by Myriam Goos, Visitor Programme Co-
ordinator at Old St Paul’s, or by the authors.
A final draft of the Conservation Plan dated … was made available for public consultation, and
feedback was received from a number of interested people. Acknowledgement is made
especially for the contributions of …
‘a very handsome building of wood,
and the interior is a great success.
Being built of totara, it may last,
unless some accident occurs to it,
several centuries.’
Bishop Abraham, 1866
4