Visiting the Temple

Business Hours

Monday – Friday : 10 am – 5 pm
Saturday : 10 am – 4 pm

From Moray Place

As you approach from the street you see a high façade set well back at the top of a slope, rising above the surrounding buildings. It presents a fine and restrained, gabled upper reach, above rusticated plasterwork at ground floor level. The centre of the façade is dominated by a plasterwork relief, representing the Temple of Solomon. The whole effect is dignified and slightly mysterious. It makes people wonder what the building’s purpose could be.

At street level there is a bluestone garden wall – the only one in this built up area –with a cast iron gate.  Its designer, Ross, took a special delight in massive stone-work which is obvious.. There is cast iron railing topping the wall with a motif representing the Sun Cross. The stone-work is robust and boldly textured.

The Garden Path

The path rises in steps, ramps and a steep flight of stairs, beside walls, through a terraced garden. A zig-zagging ramp has been provided for the short-of-breath by the thoughtful modifications of 1932. Both arrive at the entrance at the foot and right hand side of the main façade where there is a little, pillared portico.

The modesty of this entrance beside the great height of the façade adds to the impression one is entering a slightly mysterious, almost secret place. There are pillars on either side; an exterior lamp and a fanlight above curiously panelled doors.

The Ambulatory

Inside one turns sharp left into a long gallery lit by Star of David windows. Behind the interior wall lies what used to be the Masons’ Robing Room, now the gallery’s workshop.

From the end of this ambulatory, or corridor gallery, there are stairs which rise all the way to the topmost floor. That is a private apartment but on the first floor there is a landing and straight ahead the entrance to the main exhibition space.

The Refectory

This used to be the Masons’ Refectory, or supper room. Its floor plan is an irregular rectangle, necessitated by the wedge shape of the site, not arcane Masonic symbolism. It is lit by skylights and its main walls are divided by pilasters with decorated capitals. At the base of the right hand wall the bluestone foundations of the original synagogue have been exposed, the better to see the quality of its construction. As one returns to the landing one catches sight of elevated views of the inner city in the clear glass surrounding the Star of David lead lights.

In the landing floor there is a parquet star motif installed during the retrofit. It is placed outside the door to the principal apartment which is not usually open to visitors.

The Ante Room*

Inside what used to be the Masons’ Ante Room is now the apartment’s saloon, a combined eating, recreation and work space. Behind a door in the east wall there is a bathroom. Further along the same wall there is an open kitchen with more elevated views across the city. There are tall, original windows in the north wall and a fireplace in the west wall between this room and the inner sanctuary. The floor is polished kauri and there is tongue and groove panelling to dado height. In 1881 this was where the Masons assembled before going to perform their rituals.

The Sanctuary*

Another door opens to the sanctuary. This space seems spectacularly large. One enters beneath an overhead gallery but the true height of the ceiling is quickly apparent. The dark panelled Ark on the far wall is impressive.

The chamber is naturally lit through three of the original five windows in the synagogue’s north wall reopened during the retrofit. Originally the five on the other side were also open but the refectory has been built there. The Masons filled in the windows and introduced plasterwork featuring their emblems of the square and compass.

Synagogue design often makes reference to the ancient Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, as does the design of Masonic Temples. In Jewish practice the Ark was the place where the holy scriptures were kept in a closed recess. This one is dressed in Baroque style, like the one in the 17th century “Portuguese” synagogue in Amsterdam. It has flanking pillars, referring to Solomon’s Temple, and an arched pediment. It has been repainted with Masonic symbols, including the All Seeing Eye in the tympanum, the space immediately below the arch. It may be that the notable Dutch-born New Zealand artist Petrus Van der Velden (1837-1913) painted or re-painted the eye.

In the middle of the floor there is an area patterned like a black and white mosaic, another Masonic emblem, also referring to the Temple of Solomon. It has blue glass tiles set in each corner, the lenses of electric lamps, also used in Masonic ritual. Along the entrance wall there is a gallery, where  there was originally a matroneum for female members of the Jewish congregation who took no part in the formal rites. This one is probably later and used by the Masons to accommodate an organ which they had from 1881. It is supported by cast iron Corinthian pillars made by the Dunedin Victoria Foundry. There is a flight of stairs giving access.

Having been a place of Jewish worship, and then a Masonic Temple, this imposing and dignified space is now a sunny apartment and stately bed-chamber, the sanctuary of a family’s life. A wood burner has been installed and exterior French doors, but its former uses are evident everywhere. Like the whole complex, but more emphatically, the sanctuary has carried its fascinating past into the present.

It is one of a few, surviving, impressive Victorian interiors in New Zealand.

Public Access Notes

There are toilets on the premises available for use by the public. There is limited disabled access only from the rear of the exhibition space where vehicles can approach from the end of Tennyson Street. Those wishing to use it should phone the gallery first.

*Access to the ante room and sanctuary is also by prior arrangement.

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