Inner-city sanctuary

It’s not every day you find a temple that gives your imagination a bit of sea room, writes Rosalind Le Bas Walker.

WHEN TWO Dunedin art dealers bought the country’s oldest former synagogue 20 years ago, they created an inner-city sanctuary in which to live and exhibit art.

The Temple Gallery began life as a synagogue in 1864. Seventeen years later, it was converted into a masonic hall. A hundred and one years later, Victoria Timpany and her late husband Peter Duncan were inspired to keep the enchanting interiors when they converted the building into two warehouse-style apartments and an adjoining art gallery.

‘‘This stunningly beautiful living space allowed us to live and work from the one premise,’’ says Victoria, who has managed the gallery, aptly located in Dunedin CBD’s artistic quarter, for two decades.

Original features in the category one Historic Places Trust building include stained glass windows, ornamental decor and, on the wall closest to Jerusalem, a sacred closet which contained the synagogue’s sacred scrolls.

The main apartment has one large bedroom with two screenedoff sleeping areas. The second apartment is a large room which encompasses the living, kitchen, bedroom and study. Three rooms on a lower level have the potential to be converted into further bedrooms.

There is a separate bathroom on each of the three levels. The northfacing building is so central, Victoria tells the time by just looking out to the Dunedin Town Hall clock.