Kōrero: Public, commercial and church architecture

The Gothic revival style was epitomised by the Houses of Parliament in London. When Parliament was largely destroyed in a 1834 fire a royal commission determined it should be rebuilt in the Elizabethan or Gothic style – both of which were seen as embodying English values. The winning design was by the architect Charles Barry, with the assistance of Augustus Pugin. As with medieval Gothic architecture, the design had a vertical emphasis, with soaring turrets and steeply pitched roofs. Building began in the 1840s and was completed in the late 1860s. This image of the complex appeared in the Auckland Weekly News in February 1908.