University of Otago Clocktower

Otago was founded in 1869 as New Zealand's first university, and the Clocktower building - properly the Registry - went up from 1878 to 1879 in Gothic revival, built of dark Leith Valley basalt with Oamaru stone dressings on a foundation of Port Chalmers breccia, the contrast that gives Dunedin's public architecture its particular striped look. It stands beside the Water of Leith, which runs through the campus, and the standard photograph is taken across the stream with the tower reflected. Around it are the later Gothic buildings and, immediately across the road, the student quarter of North Dunedin. It is a working administrative building, not a museum, so the interest is external. The Scottish inheritance runs through the whole city - the settlement was founded by the Free Church of Scotland in 1848, and the university, First Church and the street names all follow from that.

History

Maxwell Bury designed the building, recasting a classical scheme in Gothic to suit the university council, and by 1879 the tower and the northern wing had been built. Edmund Anscombe later extended it south with the Oliver Wing of 1914 and a science extension of 1922, a clock was installed in the tower in the 1930s at the cost of Thomas Sidey, and the building was strengthened in the early 1960s instead of being pulled down (Wikipedia, University of Otago Registry Building).

What to look for

• The 1879 Clocktower - bluestone with limestone dressings, Gothic revival.
• The Water of Leith - the stream the standard photograph is taken across.
• The campus Gothic - the later buildings around it.
• The Scottish inheritance - visible across the whole city.

When to go

Any season; April and May for autumn colour along the Leith. Term time gives the campus life; the summer break empties it.

Before you go

It is a working office building - you look at it from outside. The campus is busy in term and dead in January. Parking in the area is difficult.

Nearby

First Church and the Octagon are south; Baldwin Street and North Dunedin are close.

Key facts