• Home
• Worship
  • Worship Schedule
• Sermons
• Music
  • Choirs
  • Music List
  • Organs
  • Scholarships
  • Organ Recitals
  • Cathedral Music
• Cathedral Community
  • Cathedral News
• Events
  • Event Information
  • Book Your Event
• Weddings
• Remembrance and Celebration
• Cathedral Features
  • The Cathedral
  • St Mary's
  • St Stephen's
  • Marsden Chapel
• Links
• Contacts and People

Constructing the Cathedral

Between 1937 and 1939 the General Trust Board of the Auckland Diocese established the terms of a competition to design a Cathedral "that shall be a landmark and an inspiration." Total building cost for the project was limited to £200,000 ($400,000). With the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, neither fundraising nor construction was permitted to proceed. An Act of Parliament was passed to amend the terms of the Horton bequest, allowing construction to be placed on hold until seven years after war ended.

Charles Towle, a New Zealander working in Australia, won the competition. Only one entrant, Richard Toy, designed a building within the cost limits. By 1950 inflation had destroyed any possibility of erecting the Cathedral to the proposed plans. Towle first reduced the cubic size by 50%, and then removed the tower with the intention of placing it beside the main building. Before working drawings were commenced the height was further reduced to 24metres (80 feet).

On 13th June 1957, the centenary of the signing of the Constitution of the Anglican Church in New Zealand, Bishop W.J. Simkin laid the foundation stone for Holy Trinity Cathedral on a stone brought from Lichfield Cathedral. This event had interesting links. The Rt Revd G.A. Selwyn, first Bishop of New Zealand had strong associations with Lichfield, returning as their bishop in 1868, while Bishop Simkin had been a priest there prior to his arrival in New Zealand.

The Dean of Auckland, later Assistant Bishop Rt Revd Rae Monteith, had been involved in the Cathedral building project from 1940, and became the driving force as Fletcher Construction Co. Ltd began work in 1959. The Choir, Transepts, Crossing and ancillary rooms, including Marsden Chapel were built between 1959 and 1973. Of concrete construction clad with brick, this section, seating 150 in opposed rows of pews, and a few more in the Crossing, served for twenty years before work could begin on the nave.

Completing the Cathedral
Professor Richard Toy’s design for the completion of the Cathedral shows St Mary’s at the right, the nave at the centre and the planned campanile. He was the architect responsible for moving St Mary’s across Parnell Road and his design progressed when in 1989 it became possible to complete the nave and excavation work began in 1991. The nave was first used in November 1994 but work continued for several years on the windows of the nave.