St Matthew's in the City Anglican Church
Auckland



Organ by Willis? 1862, reb. Lawton & Osborne 1939, Croft 1977
(3/44 electric)
Plans are being made to restore and resite the instrument.



Below right: space in triforium for organ

Photos Simon Colvin and MQ



John Loughborough Pearson, and his son Frank Loughborough Pearson, were mainstream architects of the English Gothic-revival. J.L. Pearson designed such illustrious buildings as Truro Cathedral, St Augustine's, Kilburn and St Michael's, Croydon and produced the initial plans for St John's Cathedral, Brisbane. His son Frank was responsible for the design of St Matthew's which remains in the full-blown idiom of his father, based upon French Gothic exemplars. It has double stone-vaulted aisles to the nave (similar to Brisbane), transverse arches, small western transepts and a rear nave gallery placed above a vaulted baptistery. There is an extraordinarily narrow arch leading into the sanctuary, which boasts vaulting, with ambulatory and a triforium passage. The fine tower was intended to have a spire, but miraculously the whole church was otherwise built in one operation and completed entirely to the original design. The church has an outstanding collection of Whitefriars stained glass.

Parts of the present organ date back to an early organ by Henry Willis, London, said to date from 1862. This was extensively rebuilt in 1939 by Lawton & Osborne and a further rebuilding and enlargement by George Croft & Son in 1977, following which various ranks of pipework have been assembled for a further enlargement. A report by John Maidment produced in 1999 recommended the resiting of the organ into the upper level organ chambers facing into the south transept.

It is to be hoped that a thorough restoration will be forthcoming in the not too distant future.

The specification of the Willis organ can be reconstructed as follows:

Willis [1862?] (2/18 mechanical)

GREAT
Open Diapason
Claribel Flute
Gamba
Dulciana
Principal
Harmonic Flute
Twelfth
Fifteenth
Sesquialtera
Trumpet
Cremona

SWELL
Bourdon
Open Diapason
Stopped Diapason
Principal
Sesquialtera
Trumpet
Oboe

PEDAL
Open Diapason

COUPLERS
Swell to Great
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal

8
8
8
8
4
4
2-2/3
2
III
8
8


16
8
8
4
III
8
8


16














17.19.22








17.19.22













Mechanical action throughout
Compass: 56/30


George Croft & Son 1977 (3/44 electric)

GREAT
Double Diapason
Open Diapason I
Open Diapason II
Claribel Flute
Dulciana
Principal
Harmonic Flute
Twelfth
Fifteenth
Mixture
Tromba
Trumpet
Clarion

SWELL
Bourdon
Open Diapason
Stopped Diapason
Viola
Voix Celeste
Principal
Flautina
Mixture
Trumpet
Oboe
Clarion

PEDAL
Acoustic Bass
Open Wood
Open Metal
Bourdon
Contra Dulciana
Octave
Bass Flute
Fifteenth
Mixture
Trombone
Trumpet
Trumpet
Trumpet
Schalmey

POSITIVE
Gedackt
Principal
Blockflute
Larigot
Cimbel
Cromorne
Trumpet
Spare slide
Tremulant

16
8
8
8
8
4
4
2-2/3
2
III
8
8
4


16
8
8
8
8
4
2
III
8
8
4


32
16
16
16
16
8
8
4
IV
16
16
8
4
4


8
4
2
1-1/3
III
8
8



A

A

TC




19.22.26
B
C
C






TC


22.26.29





D

A
D
Prep
A
D
A

B
C
C
C
C

(prepared for)






C



9 couplers
Compass: 61/30
Electro-pneumatic action
Detached mobile console






Peter Shaw, A History of New Zealand Architecture. 2nd ed. s.l.: Hodder Moa Beckett, c.1999, pp 76-7.
Archibald Mainwaring, 'Some organs in New Zealand' part IV, Musical Opinion, vol XXI no 4 (1898) p 827
Specification of current organ noted John Maidment 1999