Why go Gothic?

It is interesting to consider how the Canterbury College town site would appear today if the presiding style of the buildings was not the Gothic. After all, there were other potential style options open to the Board of Governors when planning began for the College’s first buildings. A Christchurch resident of the 1890s noted that “… no particular or rigid line of architecture has been adopted [here], but the general design and style, however, embrace good taste and elegance with substantial utility. There is a happy combination of ideas from various schools – the Classic, Gothic, Venetian, Elizabethan and Domestic English.”

For many reasons though, Gothic Revival was the obvious choice for the College. For a start, Gothic was the popular mode in England, and colonists in New Zealand were keen to follow the trend. Being the same or as good as ‘home’ would have brought with it a sense of security and self-confidence in the new settlement. A Christchurch settler wrote in 1903 “Small and irregularly built structures, relics of the past, … must be replaced by finer buildings before the citizens can be satisfied with the impression that their town will produce upon casual visitors."

The philosophy behind Gothic Revival would also have firmly matched the ideals of the Canterbury Association and the College Board of Governors. Through its references to European Christian architecture and places of learning, the Gothic spoke volumes to early settlers about respect for tradition and enduring strength.  By the time many early Christchurch schools and churches were being constructed, Gothic Revival with all its cloisters and pinnacles was generally accepted as the appropriate style to match the status of educational institutions. In the mid 1800s, Augustus Pugin lamented the building of colleges in plainer styles in The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture. Without cloisters, pinnacles and towers he exclaimed "How is it possible to expect that the race of men who proceed from these factories of learning will possess the same feelings as those who anciently went forth from the Catholic Structures of Oxford and Winchester."

It was not surprising then that the Gothic style should be favoured by the College Board and Architects, and they had only to look sideways to find affirmation of the choice. Gothic was already well established in Christchurch by the time the first buildings on the College site were being designed. In the heart of the city George Gilbert Scott’s Gothic Christchurch Cathedral was still under construction in the 1870s, and architect B.W. Mountfort had created magnificent examples of Gothic Revival in his designs for Canterbury Museum, and the Provincial Government Buildings. The Gothic also offered some practical advantages in the building process. New building materials used in the 19th Century meant Gothic styles could be built several stories high, while still allowing for enough light inside. By the time Canterbury College celebrated its Jubilee in 1923, T.W. Cane could happily write that “Visitors to our city … cannot fail to surmise that this air of old-world dignity and charm is a legacy bequeathed by the founders of the province … They aimed at planning and building a city which should grow up around some nucleus of culture and reverence for tradition."