StreetscapeNZ - 115

Pleasant Point

Near the Railway Station

Close to Timaru, South Island

Feb.2011, Ajr

StreetscapeNZ - 113

Pleasant Point

Near Timaru

South Island

February 2011, Ajr

StreetscapeNZ - 112

Timaru, South Island

February 2011. Ajr

One Cathedral, One Lamp

It's Sunday

And it's been a long time since I delved into my church architecture files.

This is a shot I took recently of the very beautiful, Church of the Sacred Heart in Timaru. I had planned to go inside and take some interior shots but the place was teeming with school kids, so I changed my mind. I'm not a religious person but there is a certain spirituality in these gigantic places that I like to enjoy in silence. It was a cold, grey day when I visited, so of course the sky in this image has been unnaturally doctored. I wanted to highlight the needle-thin lamp post leaning in to the cathedral. There just seemed to be something timorous and weak about this modern addition to the landscape when set against the bulk and heft of the Basilica - which, by the way, was designed by prolific church designer, architect, F.W. Petre (1847-1918), who I have written about here numerous times before.

Building in Brick

Timaru. May 2009. Ajr When I drove through Timaru recently I was given to wondering how many bricks there might be in this little South Island town. I had gone off course (intentionally for once), scouting the backstreets for good photos. That's where I found two huge buildings that set me thinking about the 19th century. They were both brick, both flour mills. The larger of the two (top left and bottom images) is, I think (or was) Champion Flour Mills. At least that's what was written on one end of the building; it's not exactly a big mental leap from there is it? It appeared to be unused but how could you ever tell what was going on inside a bleak looking monstrocity like that? The smaller, much much cuter building is Atlas Flour Company building, designed by Dunedin architect, James Hislop and built in 1881 for William Evans. I particularly liked the multiple overlays of type in its sign. You can't see it in detail in this photograph, but letters from earlier times lurk like shadows behind the main name.

A Pair of Basilica

Top: St Patrick's Basilica, Waimate: Centre&Bottom: Sacred Heart Basilica, Timaru. Nov.2008. Ajr

It’s just as well I LIKE candid photography snapped from moving car windows because that’s all I got a chance for when I was driven south (by a speedy driver in a hurry) last week. As we went through Timaru (2 hours south of Christchurch), I managed to get these delightfully ‘vague’ shots of one of my favourite churches – The Church of the Sacred Heart. This Basilica is part of a cluster of Catholic Church buildings on a large site in the centre of Timaru. It was designed by the very busy architect, F.W. Petre (1847-1918), who designed a swathe of stunning churches all over the South Island, including the gorgeous Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Christchurch, which I have featured here several times before. The top image here is also his design – the very pretty St Patrick’s Basilica in Waimate, which was built 1908-09. It’s three tower bells were cast in Belgium (I hope you’re reading this Hermione) and the largest weighs three-quarters of a ton. Petre was New Zealand’s most significant Neo-Classical architect and he’s also renowned for his design of the Wellington Sacred Heart Cathedral (1901); St Patrick’s in Oamaru (1894); St Patrick’s Dunedin; St Mary’s Basilica, Invercargill (1905) and the Catholic Church in Gore (1914). To see the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Christchurch, click on the name (or Churches) in the label line below this post.