Unitarian Church
Ponsonby

George Croft 1904 (2/17 pneumatic)

Photo MQ

The Unitarian Church was erected over a period of four months in 1901 to the design of T.H. White, an architect who had studied in Birmingham and Paris. The striking design was based upon a church that White had built for South Africa and is constructed in timber, with a steeply angled roof, windows with glazing bars and a half-timbered main gable.

The organ is a substantial and intact example of the early work of George Croft dating from 1904, retaining its original action, pipework and unusual double pipe facades divided on either side of the building facing across and down the church. The casework incorporates towers capped by crenellation and the original colourful stencilling remains.

George Croft 1904 (2/17 pneumatic)

GREAT Open Diapason Stopped Diapason Dulciana Principal Flute Harmonic Fifteenth SWELL Double Diapason Violin Diapason Clarabella Gamba Voix Celeste Principal Piccolo Cornopean Oboe Tremulant PEDAL Open Diapason Bourdon COUPLERS Swell to Great Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal

8 8 8 4 4 2 16 8 8 8 8 4 2 8 8 16 16

TC

Photos JRM

John Maindonald, A Radical Religious Heritage. Ponsonby: Auckland Unitarian Church, 1993, p 16
Specification from Bruce Thompson 2006