John Lewis finds Dunedin’s old morgue nestled in the hill near the Southern Cemetery.
Its very proximity to gravestones conjures gruesome thoughts about what lies behind the historic building’s doors.
Surprisingly, these days the only thing left inside that points to its former purpose is a drain in the middle of the floor — neatly covered with a rusting metal plate — where the large white marble autopsy table used to sit.
If you didn’t know any better, you would think it was just a storage space now, with a small bathroom off to one side, and a reception/office area with a fireplace at the front door.
The Dunedin City Council-owned building was designed by Lawson and Salmond — the architects of many historic Dunedin buildings — and was built by Robert Dow in 1903.
Originally, the Edwardian-style building was designed to be "a thoroughly up-to-date building in every respect".
The main door opened into a porch, which in turn opened into a comfortable waiting room on the left for witnesses; and a larger inquest room on the right, which had a large glass window where jurors could view a body without having to enter the postmortem room.
It also contained another smaller room for the reception of decomposed bodies, and part of the building was set aside for the storage of bodies until they could be identified.
The building is thought to be the only purpose-built morgue in New Zealand, and it served the community right up until 1949.
About 23,000 people are buried across 5.76 hectares in the Southern Cemetery, and many of them would have been through the morgue’s doors.
Notable people buried there include Thomas Burns, Captain William Cargill, Henry Clapcott, Willi Fels, Hugh Gourley, Bendix Hallenstein, Maurice Joel, Johnny Jones, Leopold Kirschner, William Downie Stewart, Dorothy Theomin, and even Prince Konstanty Alojzy Drucki-Lubecki.
It has changed little since it was built and, along with the cemetery itself, it is considered an important cultural part of Dunedin’s landscape and is listed as a category-1 Historic Place by Heritage New Zealand.
After it stopped being a morgue, some walls were taken out, some garage doors were installed on the front of the building and it was converted into a garage by 1951, to store council reserve vehicles.
Dunedin City Council facilities and parks contract adviser Ifan Davies said more recently, it was used by a local Surf Life Saving New Zealand club to store its inflatable rescue boats.
For now, the building remains empty, but the Dunedin City Council is looking for charity, sporting or community groups to lease it.
"It’s worth remembering, due to its location, that it’s probably not a place you want to be visiting after dark", he said.
