William Beatson

David Beatson arrived in London from Fife, Scotland, in about 1790, to join his cousins who were shipbreakers at Rotherhithe.

By 1820, David was shipbreaking at Surrey Canal Wharf, eventually passing the business on to his oldest son, John Beatson (1802–1858).

[7] As a qualified architect, William practiced in London until 1851, when he and his family boarded the barque Midlothian at Gravesend and set sail for New Zealand.

Beatson completed Saint Paul's Chapel of Ease, Rotherhithe (consecrated in 1850), before his departure to New Zealand.

This was a land prone to earthquakes that could damage, if not destroy, buildings built from stone; but unlike Victorian Britain, New Zealand had an abundance of timber.

Beatson was probably persuaded by the Gothic revival that was influencing many of his contemporaries in England, therefore, his new work often utilised carved timber columns.

Constrained by a budget and also torn between the potential risk to such a large number of students in the event of fire or earthquake, Beatson opted for a wooden building in a modest Jacobian style.