Talk:Chief Post Office, Christchurch

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A fact from Chief Post Office, Christchurch appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 24 May 2011 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the clock tower (pictured) of the Chief Post Office in Christchurch, New Zealand, is reputed to be a replica of London's Big Ben?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2011/May.

Wikipedia

Lyttelton Post Office

You can really see the likeness with the (smaller) Lyttelton Post Office, a "Category II heritage building". New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero. Heritage New Zealand. Schwede 66 04:28, 19 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

1875 parliamentary debates

Hi Rosiestep, did you get this book out of the library? I'm asking because it doesn't appear to be available to me in Google Books. Or am I missing something? Schwede 66 08:07, 19 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

My understanding from other dyk collaborators who are outside the US is that they don't have the same view (access) of Google Books as those within the US. --Rosiestep (talk) 02:02, 20 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

DYK

As far as I'm concerned, this job's done. Hence, I've nominated it at DYK. By all means, feel free to come up with an ALT hook. The article looks great, and I've enjoyed the collaboration. What next? Schwede 66 10:52, 19 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Replica of Big Ben

Let's get the pedantry out of the way to begin with: Big Ben is one of the bells in the Westminster Palace clock tower in London, not the tower itself. That done, it what sense is the tower in Christchurch a replica of the one in London? They don't look at all alike. SDCHS (talk) 08:17, 24 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I think it's supposed to be more inspired by Big Ben Tower than a direct replica, in as much as it is a square clock tower with four faces. --Connelly90[AlbaGuBràth] (talk) 10:51, 24 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The sources call it a "replica" so I guess we are stuck with it. And, while SDCHS is technically correct about the terminology, the Big Ben article does say that using the term to apply to the whole tower is "entirely commonplace". – ukexpat (talk) 12:59, 24 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I really did mean to get the pedantry out of the way so we could concentrate on my real question. Probably it would have been best to not bring up the point at all. I was just concerned that if I did that and we got a discussion going, somebody would have hopped into the fray and said, "You dummies. Don't any of you know that Big Ben is the name of a bell, not the tower?"

So anyhow, what are these sources that call it a replica? I don't know any meaning of the word "replica" that would allow it in a comparison of these two towers. There are lots of square clock towers all over the world (particularly if you count sundials as clocks) and I dare say that some of them have clocks on all four faces. Would they all be considered replicas? SDCHS (talk) 08:24, 25 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

As one of the authors of this article, I can't say that I know any more about this than what the sources say. What I've done, though, is to write to Anna Crighton, who is the author of William Clayton's biography. I've outlined what this discussion is about and encouraged her to reply to me, or come here and contribute to this discussion. As far as I know, she is a trained heritage historian. And of course, having written Clayton's official biography, she's probably done a lot of research about his work. We'll see what comes out of this. Schwede 66 10:12, 25 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've just had a reply from Anna Crighton. Here's what she's got to say:

Thank you for your email – gosh, after all this time Clayton surfaces again!
I am not sure of the Big Ben reference. I did not come across it in my research but this fact could have been discovered since the writing of my thesis. Clayton’s towers were influenced by the Halles and belfry, Bruges of 1280 as well as similarities with John Shaw’s St. Dunstans in the West Strand, London (1829-33) and even Charles Barry’s octagonal lantern on the Houses of Parliament (1840-60).
Cheers Anna Crighton QSO JP

I have to leave it to others to sort this out, as I'm just about off on wikileave for a few weeks. Schwede 66 04:50, 10 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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