St. Matthew in the City, Auckland, New Zealand

St Matthew-in-the-City, is an historic Anglican church in the Central Business District of Auckland, designed in the neo-Gothic style by John Loughborough Pearson and completed in 1905, after Pearson’s death.

As the city expanded, residential and commercial buildings sprang up and to serve the Anglicans amongst the growing population, George Augustus Selwyn, (New Zealand's first Anglican bishop and after whom Selwyn College, Cambridge is named) acquired land from the Crown in 1843 at the corner of Hobson and Wellesley Streets. On it a one-roomed school was built from which Bishop Selwyn first conducted services.

In 1855 Bishop Selwyn appointed the designer of Old St Paul's, Wellington, the Reverend Frederick Thatcher, as vicar of the new parish of St Matthew's and on July 13th of that year, thirty people met in the school room to constitute the new parish. Thatcher (1814-1890) was an English architect and clergyman, born at Hastings to a long-established Sussex family. He was one of the earliest associates of the Institute of British Architects, being admitted in 1836.

In 1896 the parish decided it was time to build the stone church. Pearson, designer of both Truro Cathedral in Cornwall and St John's Cathedral in Brisbane, Australia was engaged but, before he could complete the plans, he died in 1898 and it fell to his son, Frank Loughborough Pearson to complete his work: the cornerstone was laid on April 23rd, 1902 by Governor Lord Ranfurly.

As central Auckland became increasingly commercial the population in the parish declined. St Matthew's took on more of a role as church to the commercial and civic life of the city, a role it continues today. The church's size, location, style and musical tradition have made it a natural place for civic services to be held.

In 1862 Henry Willis supplied an instrument of two Manuals and Pedals for use in the original, wooden church. In 1907, two years after the completion of the new church, this instrument was moved intact, into the new church but being placed directly on the floor of the south Transept and completely ignoring the purpose-designed, Triforium-level organ chamber provided by Pearson’s design - as at Truro. The new Church, being over eight-times the size of the original church, rendered the old Willis greatly inadequate for the job and in 1938 it was finally decided to rebuild the organ - the contract being awarded to the recently-arrived Ernest Lawton, of Aberdeen, who had set up in business with a local man by the name of Osborne. Lawton and Osborne carried out a substantial rebuilding of the organ which did not improve it and in the 1970s there was a further attempt made by the local firm of Croft. Consequently, little of the nature of the original instrument survives though there are several partially-surviving, original ranks.

Nearly 150 years after building the first instrument, Henry Willis & Sons was invited to St. Matthew’s in order to give an opinion as to the state of the instrument and to recommend a course of action: other recommendations and quotations already having been received from other firms. Our recommendation to the Church authorities was that only the surviving Willis pipework which had not been completely ruined should be retained (which amounts only to parts of five manual stops) and that an otherwise new instrument of four manuals and 54 stops should be designed and constructed, to be placed within Pearson’s organ chamber and with new cases for both the Transept and Chancel elevations.

Gallery

Boards of Poplar in the Willis Timber Mill

being prepared for jointing

The Ground Frame and the Building Frames
slowly take shape

Manufacturing Swell & Choir
Shutter Frames

Shutter Front

Shutters

Double height Swell Front
with shutters fitted

The completed skeleton
of the organ

Inside the lower level
of the Swell Box

A production line
of Shutter Cock Blocks
and Bellows
Counter-balance Blocks

Corner Stripping Bellows Wells

Preparing Floating Frames and Top Frames

Taping over 95 Ribs

Leathering over 95 Ribs

Strapping & Gussets being applied

In situ on the Bellows Frame
for the Pedal Well

The five main bellows
in their Stack

Wind Trunking being manufactured

It is then Mitered

and fitted to the organ

Poplar is prepared for making motors

Motorboards cut and being fitted to Bottomboards

The motors are then removed and leathered

and are re-fitted to the Bottomboards

The Soundboard Grid is prepared and lined

The Well is added and the Pallets laid out

Spring holes are burned before fixing
the Pallets with a leather tail

The Soundboard internal action complete

Finishing Touches

Mounted on the building frame

Making Throttle valves for the soundboard underactions

Valve Registers are fitted

The Underaction joints
are bedded with cow hide

Electro-magnets are
fitted and wired

Making membrane pallet actions for
Pedal Chests and off-notes

The upper-side of
the Swell off-notes
chest

Fitting slider seals
to the underside of
the upperboards

Compression felts being fitted
to the Swell Flues Soundboard

Console Design

Drawstop Pulls engraved
and ready for fitting

Keys and Piston Rails being assembled

Console Keybench

Jambs, Keys & Keybench

Traditional Willis
Rounded Sharps

Console Case built up

Fitting and wiring the Drawstop Solenoids

The polished console

with Drawstops and Pistons fitted

Solo Flûte Harmonique on the Voicing Machine

Solo Trompette Militaire

Choir Corno-di-bassetto

Swell Contra Fagotto

Voicing the
Choir Nazard

Choir Concert Fulte

Trays of voiced pipework
ready for the organ

Racking In the Great Pipework

Installed on the
Great Soundboard

The Great Flues Soundboard

The Pedal 32-foot Contre Bombarde

The 32' Contre Bombarde is laid down
horizontally for voicing

The Reed Tongues are cut and then curved
using the Vincent Willis
Reed Tongue Curving Machine

before fitting to the Eschallot and adding the Brass Load

Metal is cast to be made into lengths for conveyances

The lengths are cut and mitre joints are made
to fit them to the upperboards

Oak Cresting for the tops of the cases

A Pipe Shade

Pendants

for the cases

The Ribbing of the Coving

The Chancel Case and a Transept Case being fitted
with off-note chests for the Prospect Pipes

The first container is carefully packed
and makes its way to New Zealand

The first container arrives on the
other side of the world and is opened

The contents of the container
are unloaded into the church

The Contre Bourdon 32' has chains fitted

The Contre Bourdon is suspended
up-side-down from the Pedal Well walls

The 32' Contre Bombarde and the 16' Violone
are installed in the Pedal Well

The Well fills up with pipework, bellows and trunking

The Bellows Stack
half way up
the Well

At the top

The Pedal Open
at the top of
the Well

Looking over the Choir
Soundboard to the
Pedal chests and
Soundboard

Supporting steelwork in
chamber openings

The dismantled blower is rebuilt in the basement

The Swell Box
with its double
front installed

Solo Trompette
Militaire

Swell Contra
Fagotto 16'

Contra Fagotto 16'

The front pipeblocks and casework are installed

Building up the casework at high level

Putting pipes into the cases

The Chancel Case