Charles Le Neve Arnold and Richard Atkinson Abbott architectural drawings

Charles Le Neve Arnold’s (c.1855-1955) place of birth and education is not known. He moved from Feering, Kelvedon, Essex, England to New Zealand sometime prior to 6 December 1882 when he married Jessie Spencer Smith at All Saints’, Dunedin. (1) By the time his son was born in September 1883, he was living on St. Stephen’s Road [now part of St Stephens Avenue] Parnell, Auckland. (2, 3) Arnold joined the Auckland Institute of Architects in 1885 and was a council member in 1902. He went into partnership with Richard Atkinson Abbott in 1910. The partnership was dissolved in 1925 and Arnold retired in 1927. (4)

Richard Atkinson Abbott (1883-1954) was born in Auckland. He attended St. John’s College and King’s College before joining Charles Arnold’s practice in 1902. In the mid-1900s Abbott went to Europe. He received architectural training in England, where he spent two years on a building project at Bramham Park, Yorkshire, and a further year at the Sorbonne, Paris. (5) Upon his return to New Zealand, he rejoined Arnold’s practice as a partner. Abbott was a founding member of the New Zealand Institute of Architects and a member of the Town Planning Institute of New Zealand. He served in the New Zealand military during both world wars. Abbott had long-standing associations with King College Old Boys’ Association and the Anglican Church. After Arnold’s retirement, he continued as senior partner in Abbott and Hole, later Abbott, Hole and Annabell. Abbott died in 1954, survived by five children. (6)

The Arnold and Abbott partnership’s most significant commissions were the designs for Auckland Grammar School (1913) and the new King’s College site at Middlemore, including the chapel (1922, 1925). The design for Auckland Grammar was notable for its adoption of Spanish mission influences, while the new King’s College was in a Gothic revival collegiate design. (7)

1. Marriages. (1882, December 16). Otago Witness. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18821216.2.60.

2. Hatched. (1883, September 22). Observer. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TO18830922.2.47.

3. Auckland Libraries. (n.d.) Auckland City Street Names St Stephen’s Road. http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/streets/streets.html.

4. Dissolution of partnerships.(1925, April 16)New Zealand Herald. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19250416.2.180.6.

5. Jeremy Salmond.(1998). Abbott, Richard Atkinson. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4a1/abbott-richard-atkinson.

6. Obituary. (1954). Home and Building 17(2), 34-35, 55.

7. Sheppard, F. (n.d.) Richard Atkinson Abbott [clippings file] Sheppard Collection MSS & Archives Architecture 2017/1/A133. Special Collections, University of Auckland.