Greymouth Courthouse

Before he became the Government Architect, John Campbell was commissioned to design the Greymouth and Masterton Courthouses. They both were in the imperial baroque style that he became known for, and applied to government buildings nationwide, but in a more restrained style.

It is said that the Greymouth version was based directly on a courthouse in Cardiff, Wales.

The timeframe of this build was 1911, the burgeoning West Coast town having had a timber courthouse and a magistrate since the 1870s. It has stood for over a century, was flooded and shaken and subject to all the West Coast could throw at it until being replaced in 2007 with a grey box on the same street. It is apparently very comfortable, and actually has a waiting rooms so the defendants don't spend hours at Blanchfields Bakery across the road waiting for their name to be called, and heating that doesn't cause blowback in an easterly, filling the courtroom with smoke. There are even women's toilets, something which went missing in the repair of the old courthouse after building alterations in 1982.

The old one was sold in 2014. It remains a Category One Heritage Place.

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