Benjamin Woolfield Mountfort was one of New Zealand’s most pre-eminent architects in the nineteenth century. He designed many important public buildings in Christchurch and was responsible for the adoption of the Gothic Revival style which characterised the city. This page gives background information on his life and works.
British beginnings
Mountfort was born on 13 March 1825. He grew up in Birmingham, England, and studied architecture with Richard Cromwell Carpenter. Carpenter was an important member of the Gothic Revival movement and was a strong influence on Mountfort’s architectural style.
Arriving in Canterbury
On 20 August 1850, Mountfort married Emily Newman. He travelled with his new wife on board the Charlotte Jane to Canterbury, arriving on 16 December 1850.
His first design in New Zealand was for the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Lyttelton. Unfortunately, unseasoned (not fully dried) timber was used, and after strong winds had buffeted it, it was decided that the church was not safe and it was demolished in 1857. This incident did not help Mountfort’s career at first, although it was his knowledge of local timber and conditions that was the problem, not his skill as an architect. Until 1859 he ran a bookshop and worked as a drawing teacher. In that time he designed two more churches.
Architect to the province of Canterbury
By 1857 Mountfort and his partner and brother-in-law, Isaac Luck, had become architects to the province of Canterbury. Together they designed the new Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings, built between 1858-1865. The stone chamber (built in 1865) is thought of as the most important example of Mountfort’s work.
View architecture by Benjamin Mountfort in Canterbury Stories
When the construction of ChristChurch Cathedral began in 1863, the English architect, George Gilbert Scott, recommended Mountfort for the job of supervising architect (looking after the day-to-day work on the building site). The Cathedral Commission insisted on an architect from England instead. After the building had been delayed because of money problems, Mountfort was made supervising architect when work finally started again in 1873.
New Zealand’s leading church architect
Other buildings designed by Mountfort were the Canterbury Museum (1869-1882), Canterbury College (now the Arts Centre), which included the clock-tower block (1877) and the Great Hall (1882). Nowhere else in New Zealand has there been a collection of public buildings in the Gothic Revival style.
He was elected president of the Canterbury Association of Architects when it was formed in 1872. By the 1880s Mountfort was recognised as the country’s leading church architect, with the design of over forty churches to his name.
Benjamin Mountfort died on 15 March 1898, in Christchurch.
Buildings designed by Mountfort
- Christchurch Club
- Canterbury Museum
- Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings
- Arts Centre
- Magistrates' Court
- Trinity Congregational Church
- Church of the Good Shepherd, Phillipstown
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St Paul’s Anglican Church, Papanui
The church was where Lord Ernest Rutherford married Georgina Newton in 1900. Many prominent Cantabrians are buried in its graveyard including Sir Robert Heaton Rhodes and Captain Charles Hazlitt Upham. - Victoria Clock Tower
- New Zealand Trust and Loan building
Sources
- Ian J. Lochhead. Mountfort, Benjamin Woolfield — Biography, from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 1-Sep-10
- Dictionary of New Zealand biography, Vol. 1, 1769-1869. Wellington, 1990.
More about Mountfort and the Gothic Revival
Audio guide to Te Matatiki Toi Ora The Arts Centre and Clock Tower Open Christchurch
Listen to architectural historian Dr Ian Lochhead talk about Te Matariki Toi Ora The Arts Centre and the Clock Tower, and hear about Ernest Rutherford and other people who studied or taught in these buildings and went on to change the world.
In our catalogue
Related pages
- The Arts Centre
- The Canterbury Museum
- Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings
- Image collection: Gothic Revival
Other websites
- B.W. Mountfort and the Gothic Revival: A Centennial Exhibition at the Christchurch Art Gallery
- Mountfort, Benjamin Woolfield: Ian J. Lochhead. 'Mountfort, Benjamin Woolfield', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 30-Oct-2012
