Although not a member of the Armson Collins firm, Benjamin Woolfield Mountfort is represented in the Armson Collins Collection and was instrumental in the creation of a Gothic Revival townscape in Christchurch. C.R.H. Taylor described him as being “… a short man, of a most lovable and genial disposition, but essentially a student, a recluse; his one interest was architecture, with its associate studies of heraldry, history and art, in which he was completely wrapped."
Born in 1825, Mountfort grew up in Birmingham, England, and in 1844 became an articled pupil with the architect Richard Carpenter of London. It is likely that Mountfort became a devotee of the Gothic style while completing his articles, as Carpenter was an influential Gothic Revival church architect. In 1850 Mountfort and his family arrived in Lyttelton on board the Charlotte Jane. He immediately began practicing as an architect, designing churches and taking on public commissions. In 1865 Mountfort designed the Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings in Christchurch, which are generally recognized as the outstanding achievement of his career, and the earliest example of High Victorian Gothic architecture in New Zealand. He also became a supervising architect for the Anglican Cathedral in Cathedral Square, and designed additions to the tower and spire.
