Albert Barracks Wall

Alfred Street (University of Auckland)

The barracks and the polygonal wall were begun in 1846 to ward of possible attack by Hone Heke. The
fortifications were built by Maori workmen using stone quarried from Mt Eden. The 3.6m high wall had 'loopholes' through which soldiers could fire. The barracks covered 9.2 hectares and accommodated a thousand soldiers. Once the barracks were no longer required, the wall was gradually removed; only this portion, which lies within the grounds of Auckland University, remains.

Open: in the grounds of the University of Auckland

Admission free

tel: 09 373 7999

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Albert Park's Trooper

Albert Park, Princes Street

One hundred years on, this statue of a trooper in the South African Boer War, is a reminder of New Zealand troops' first engagement overseas. The statue is located at the northern end of Albert Park. Last century the Albert Barracks on this site housed troops.

The statue's inscription reads simply "Erected by the members of the New Zealand Battery RA in memory of their comrades who lost their lives in the South African War."

New Zealand sent 10 contingents to the war, which lasted from the end of 1899 to 1901, totalling 6500 men and 8000 horses. Of those troops a total of 228 died (from a number of causes) and 166 were wounded. New Zealand's contribution to the war cost the Government and public £500,000.

Acknowledgment: City Scene - Auckland City Council

Open: Public Park

Admission free

Tel: 09 379 2020

Registered as a Category II historic place

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Alberton

100 Mt Albert Road, Mt Albert

Allan Kerr Taylor bought this estate in 1849 at the age of 16, naming it Alberton after nearby Mount Albert. He built a substantial farmhouse in 1863 and later enlarged it to 18
rooms to provide for his family and to entertain. The Pakuranga hunt rode over the extensive grounds, balls were held in the barn and parties in the garden. The estate once comprised 220 hectares of gardens orchard, pasture and
scrub. The suburb of Morningside is built on the northern portion of this; Mount Albert Grammar School and the Crown Research Institute are on others. Subdivision and sale of land were a profitable source of funds to the Taylors over the years.Now 0.4 hectares with fine old trees and one of the original fountains remains.

Allan Kerr Taylor was also a considerable landowner in Waimauku, an investor in kauri timber and other companies and a provincial and local body politician. He was regarded as the "squire" of Mount Albert, and gave land for the nearby Anglican church of St Luke, of which he was Treasurer,
Trustee, Minister's Warden, Sunday School teacher and member of Synod. He and all his family are buried there.

After Allan's death in 1890 the estate was run by his wife, Sophia Louisa Davis. Mother of ten children, two of whom died young, she was an outspoken advocate of votes for women. She was a keen gardener, growing and selling flowers, fruit and vegetables, and like her daughters, had a fine voice, singing in St Luke's choir and performing at local concerts. Her three unmarried daughters, Winifred, Millicent and Muriel Kerr-Taylor ran the estate after her death in 1930.

Muriel left the house to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust on her death in 1972. It contains family furniture and other possessions, and some nineteenth century wallpapers.

Open: Wednesday - Sunday 10.30am-12pm; 1pm-4.30pm

Admission: Adults $5, unaccompanied children $2
NZHPT members free (on production of valid membership card)

Tel: 09 846 7367
Email: alberton@historic.org.nz
Website: www.alberton.co.nz

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Auckland City Art Gallery

Cnr Wellesley Street and Kitchener Street

Completed in 1887 this distinctive building originally housed the public library, the art gallery and the municipal offices. Melbourne architects Grainger and d'Ebro won the competition in 1884 with their design influenced by the French Renaissance chateaus. This elegant solution to the problem of a sloping site with a corner of 120 degrees features two wings with projecting pavilions linked by the clock and smaller ogee domed towers.

Open: Daily 10am-5pm

Admission: Main gallery free

Tel: 09 307 7700
Email: gallery@akcity.govt.nz

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Former Auckland Electric Power Board Building

187 Queen Street

Originally the headquarters of the Auckland Electric Power Board, this 'skyscraper' was completed in 1930. Designed by Wade and Bartley, the building represents the transition between neoclassicism and the 'International Style'. The ornate exterior, which features unusual pressed and moulded cement panels, was floodlit at night. New Zealand motifs in the exteriorand interior decoration are a deliberate attempt to give a New Zealand identity to the building. The interior public spaces were decorated with Italian marble, bronze and carved kauri wood. The new building was symbolic of the rapid progress made with the help of electricity when the Arapuni hydroelectric station was opened in 1930. Recently the building was adapted for retail use.

Open: Private property, not open to the public

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Auckland Harbour Bridge

Auckland Harbour

After many years of debate the Auckland
Harbour Bridge was finally built between the city and North Shore and, in May 1959, walked over on completion by more than 100,000 Aucklanders.

The following day, the New Zealand Herald reported that many of those who walked over the bridge were treated for blistered feet and also reported:-"a woman who was leaning over the edge holding her baby, was bumped and nearly dropped the infant. She burst into tears and made off with the child into the crowd... a woman who fell over a child was taken to hospital... dozens of hats were blown off the bridge and some fished out of the water by the police launch - eight hats subsequently awaited owners at the Queen's Wharf police station... shortly after midday an intoxicated citizen brandishing a bottle of sherry and a cold
pie, became the first man to be arrested on the bridge..."

The original decision to build a four lane bridge proved shortsighted for within a decade another four lanes had been
added and dubbed the 'Nippon Clippon' because of its Japanese construction and attachment method.

Today, approximately 73,000 vehicles cross the Auckland Harbour Bridge each way, each day.

Acknowledgment: City Scene - Auckland City Council

Footnote: In December 2001 walking tours across the bridge became one ot the city's tourist attractions.

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Auckland Railway Station

Beach Road

A new location was chosen during the 1920s for the main rail terminus. The station building, designed by
architects Gummer and Ford, was constructed between 1929 and 1931 of reinforced concrete with brick facing. It has an impressive entrance and concourse. Trains and travel were the inspiration for the decorative motifs used throughout the design, and stylised wheels were used as rosettes on the
facade. The train platforms have reinforced concrete cantilevered canopies that are both pleasing and functional.

The railway station was converted to student accomodation in the late 1990's. A cafe operates in the main concourse, but most of the buidling is closed to the public. However, the platforms and their canopies are still in use, clearly visible to any passenger or visitor to the station. The main building can also be viewed from the platforms.

Open: Entrance lobby

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Auckland War Memorial Museum

Museum Street, Auckland Domain

The neoclassical facade of the museum, with the octastyle portico influenced by the Parthenon in Athens, is an outstanding Auckland landmark particularly when viewed from the harbour. The competition for the design was won by Auckland architects Grierson Aimer and Draffin, and the building was offically opened in 1929. Constructed of reinforced concrete faced with Portland stone and bronze detailing, the facade incorporates plaques commemorating battles of the First World War. The similarly detailed rear portion, added by R F and M K Draffin in 1960,
commemorates battles of the Second World War.

Open:

Tel: 09 309 0443

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Former Bank of New Zealand Facade

125 Queen Street

The neoclassical facade of the Bank of New Zealand building was completed in 1865. Designed by
Leonard Terry of Melbourne, the Tasmanian sandstone facade was originally composed of five bays but was extended to seven in the 1880s. The imposing Greek revival facade was described as, "unquestionably the finest in Auckland" when it was built. In 1986 the building, except for its facade, was demolished and the site redeveloped. The facade still makes a stylish contribution to Queen Street.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Bean Rock Lighthouse

Waitemata Harbour

Bean Rock's historic lighthouse has guarded mariners in the Waitemata Harbour for the past 130 years, apart from five months 'off duty' in 1985 to allow for extensive restoration work to take place.

Originally, the old hexagonal wooden cottage, which sat atop a pyramid of seven huge kauri logs, was inhabited by sucessive lighthouse keepers and their families until it was automated in 1912. The lighthouse stands on a dangerous reef, which takes its name from a Royal Navy officer, Lieutenant P.C.D Bean, who, in the 'HMS Herald', helped survey and chart Auckland Harbour in the 1840s.

It was hard, dangerous work shipping out and assembling the heavy timber components of the lighthouse, which threatened the reputation of its building contractor William Cameron, as well as the lives of his workmen. But in 1871 at a cost of £3000, the lighthouse with its English kerosene light of 350 candlepower was successfully completed. Mariners and shore-bound Auckland residents marvelled alike when the first powerful beam of the new light - flashing red, white and green to indicate safe channels -
shone across the water on July 24, 1871.

For a century the 'Old Lady of Waitemata' remained in its original condition, with few changes apart from its automation in 1912. But by the 1980s the Auckland Harbour Board and Historic Places Trust were seriously worried about the deteriorating condition of the lighthouse and it was decided to embark on extensive restoration work. In 1985 the cottage, with its four tiny rooms and narrow hexagonal verandah, was removed for restoration work and the base's rotted kauri legs were replaced by Australian hardwood jarrah and sunk in new concrete foundations on Bean Rock.

Then, in a breathtaking operation, the renovated cottage was winched by crane 30 metres into the air and lowered, then bolted, onto its new legs.Bean Rock lighthouse was later converted to solar power and
synchronised with an automatic fog horn. In the mid 1990s, Ports of Auckland had the lighthouse repainted.

Acknowledgement: City Scene - Auckland City Council

Open: Not open to the public

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Blackett's Building

Cnr Shortland Street and Queen Street

Look carefully at this picture and you can see a seagull surveying the scenery outside historic Blackett's
building on the corner of Queen and Shortland streets. Blackett's lines are pure Victorian, by contrast with it's
neighbours which were designed to late 20th Century standards.

Built in 1879 on land owned by J.C Blackett, the building is considered one of the finest examples of Auckland architecture from the second half of the 19th century. Its architect was Richard Keals and it is one of the very few buildings of this period in Auckland City. The building was originally the head office of the South British Insurance Company and a fourth storey as added in 1912.

It is situated on the corner of Shortland Street which was formerly known as Shortland Cresent and named after an early Govener, Sir Willoughby Shortland. Today Shortland Street contains many of the city's most impressive office complexes, but in it's early days, Shortland Cresent, rising sharply to the left from Queen Street was the object of public criticism.

Dr Graham Bush, writing in Council's history Decently and in Order, quotes thus from a sarcastic letter to an Auckland newspaper of the time: "...the navigation of Queen Street, the lower end of Shortland Cresent, High Street and Fields Lane' will be open during the whole winter. A guard of soldiers will be placed on the banks of the Ligar canal (which ran through the middle of Queen Street) and at the top of Shortland Cresent during the winter, to prevent citizens from being drowned in the one, or breaking their necks by falling over precipices near the other......"

Acknowledgement: City Scene, Auckland City Council

Open: Private property not open to the public

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Bluestone Store

1 Durham Lane

This volcanic stone warehouse is the oldest remaining commercial building in the central city and has had
a number of varied uses including the manufacture of Kiwi boot polish. The carefully detailed two-storey stone building with a gabled roof was probably designed by Reader Wood in 1861 as a warehouse for storekeepers Bernhard Levy and Nathan Goldwater.

Open: Now operates as a bar and restaurant

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Cathedral Church of St Patrick and St Joseph

43 Wyndham Street

The cathedral is the third church on this site which was granted by the Crown to Bishop Pompallier in 1841. Designed by Edward Mahoney in 1884 the present cathedral incorporated the older stone church as part of the transept. In 1907 Mahoney and his son Thomas designed substantial alterations to the church including the removal of the remaining 1845 stone portion. The spire of this Gothic Revival church is a well-known Auckland landmark and the interior contains fine Belgian stained glass, and timber vaulting.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Chief Post Office

12 Queen Street

Opened in 1912 this Edwardian Baroque building was designed under the auspices of the Government
Architect John Campbell. The base is of Coromandel granite and the second to fourth storeys are Oamaru limestone. Each end of the facade has a cupola. The foyer has a mosiac floor, tiled walls, and archways with elaborate keystones matching those on the exterior. The main chamber has glazed domes.
Currently the building has been redevloped as part of the Britomart public transport centre.

Not open to the public

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Cnr Khyber Pass Road and Burleigh Street

Although this church was originally intended to serve a parish that extended into the country the growth of Auckland city determined otherwise. It remains an inner city building which has become a centre for the Anglican Maori Mission. Plans were drawn up by Edward Mahoney in 1879 and the church was built from 1880-1 of kauri rather than stone, to reduce the expense. The weatherboard exterior features lancet windows and a slim spire over the northwest porch. The lofty interior exemplifies the fine craftwork in the construction of this wooden church.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Courtville, Corner, Middle and Little Courtville

Waterloo Quadrant Corner Parliament Street

Courtville Flats consists of three separate buildings. The corner and middle Courtville were designed by
A.Sinclair O'Connor, an Auckland architect who specialised in inner city flats and commercial buildings. They represent an early example of inner city rental accommodation which were purpose built as apartments.

Corner Courtville , 11 Parliament Street

Courtville was designed by A. Sinclair O'Connor for Potter and Stanton, and constructed by Fletchers in 1919. The five story building has 15 self-contained apartments. The wedge-shaped design is topped by an impressive corner dome, which emphasises its prominence in the streetscape. The facade detailing uses a 'free' interpretation of classical elements and yet the bay windows and pilasters are expressive of the concrete construction. The decorative interior lobby contains an early example of an electric passenger lift.

Registered as a Category I historic place

Middle Courtville, 9 Parliament Street

The smaller three storied neighbouring block was built in 1914 and was also designed in reinforced concrete by A Sinclair O'Connor for Patter and Stanton. It was the first block of self-contained apartements in Auckland. The 12 luxury apartments were fully furnished and serviced. The building is generally appointed in a similar manner as the corner Courtville building.

Registered as a Category I historic place

Little Courtville now Braemar, 7 Parliament Street

Built in 1901 as a family home for John Gray, it was named after a favourite place in his homeland Scotland. In 1906 the home was bought by William Bridson who leased it for some time to the Jacob Ziman family as a townhouse. Vera Ziman remembered her childhood home, " two storied in the front and four at the back comprising six bedrooms, dining room, drawing room, study, breakfast room, kitchen complete with gas range, coal range, to which was attached a large boiler providing gallons of hot water, which was piped throughout the house, maid's room, walk-in panty, storeroom, two bathrooms, linen room. There was a hydraulic lift and a system of speaking tubes between all floors to avoid calling and running up and downstairs.'

In 1917 Braemar was sold to Potter and Stanton who had built the neighbouring Middle Courtville in 1914 and converted the large house into flats and was administered in conjunction with the neighbouring apartment buildings. In 1994 Little Courtville or The Annex as Braemar was known, was auctioned. The present owners converted it back to a family home with much care and have thoroughly researched the
history of the house and the people associated with it.

The three Courtville buildings are some of the few remaining apartment blocks in the city and form an integral part of the important group of protected buildings in this area.

Open: Entrance lobbies only

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Emily Place Reserve

Customs Street

On the journey up from Customs Street to the University of Auckland, there is a small inner city park, popular with nearby office workers, at Emily Place. But it is not generally known that the Emily Place Reserve stretches back to the earliest days of Auckland. Here, the original St Paul's Anglican church was built and its foundation stone laid by Capt William Hobson, Governor of New Zealand, on 28 July 1841.

Its first minister was the Rev. John Churton who had come to Auckland from Russell in the Bay of Islands, where he was gazetted colonial chaplain. In that capacity he read the prayers at the opening session of the Legislative Council in 1846. The Rev. Churton died in 1853 and later his contribution to the young town was marked with a memorial obelisk.

St Paul's Anglican church was demolished in 1885 to facilitate the reclamation needed to improve nearby railway and port facilities. This required the cutting down of Point Britomart.

The church's replacement 'new St Paul's' was built on Symonds Street. In 1901, steps were taken to re-erect the Churton Memorial Obelisk, which had also been demolished.

Auckland City Council was approached and gave £20 with the remaining money contributed by the public. The replacement six-metre high monument was handed over to the care of the city at a ceremony in February 1909. In his acceptance speech, Auckland's mayor, Arthur Myers, noted that it may have the first public monument erected to an Aucklander by his fellow citizens.

The memorial can be seen today, surrounded by trees, at the resting place between the reserve's two flights of steps.

Acknowledgement: City Scene - Auckland City Council

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General Buildings (Yorkshire House)

29-33 Shortland Street

Designed by Bloomfield and Hunt this 'Chicago style' office building was completed in 1928. The addition to
the east with the same detailing was made in 1977. The building is constructed of reinforced concrete and exhibits the three divisions of 'tall office buildings' as set out by Chicago architect Louis Sullivan. The neoclassical detailed facades feature an elaborate cornice. The entrance foyer features panels of Whangarei marble and pilasters with gilt plasterwork ornamentation. Of particular note is the
decorative staircase banister. The General Buildings make a significant contribution to the surrounding streetscape.

Open: Lobby only, private property

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Grafton Bridge

Grafton

This dramatic bridge was designed and built between 1908 and 1910 by the Ferro Cement Company of Australasia Ltd. It is constructed of reinforced concrete. At the time the 296m long bridge with the 97m main arch was the largest reinforced concrete arch in the Southern Hemisphere and is an early example of this type of design.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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High Court Building

Waterloo Quadrant, Parliament Street

This distinctive Gothic Revival building, erected between 1865 and 1868, was designed by Edward Rumsey. Anton Teutenberg, a German immigrant, sculptured the gargoyles and heads of dignitaries which adorn the facades.

Always used as the High or Supreme Court, the main courtroom has finely carved panneling and a wooden ceiling with exposed arches also in Gothic Revival style.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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McDonald's, Former Auckland Savings Bank

260 Queen Street

One of the few buildings over a century older that remain on Queen Street, this former headquarters of the Auckland Savings Bank was designed by Edward Bartley and constructed in 1884. It was used by the bank until 1968 and is now occupied by a McDonald's hamburger restaurant. The facade, inspired by Italian Renaissance palazzi, is a style associated with commerce and banking. This ornately decorated building is an important example of Victorian commercial architecture, designed to inspire confidence in Auckland's economic prosperity. Most of the decorative plaster ceiling and the ornate floor tiling remain.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Northern Steamship Company Building

22-24 Quay Street

Designed by A P Wilson this neoclassically detailed brick building was constructed in 1898 as the head office of the Northern Steamship Company. The NSSC had been formed in 1881 and absorbed many smaller companies trading around Northland coasts. A substantial fleet of steamships served ports from Te Kao in the north, Opotiki in the east and as far south as Wanganui.

Originally a two storey building with a curved pediment to both Quay Street and the railway yards behind, it was given a third storey and a triangular pediment in the 1920s. This is one of a group of warehouse buildings that give Quay Street its special character.

For over fiifty years it served as a base for a coastal trade that centred around the Auckland Province as well as being the central port for overseas imports and exports for the North Island. The company also provided passenger services to isolated communities and carried frieght products of various industries, kauri gum, timber, flax and farming.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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NZI House, former South British Insurance Building

Corner Shortland Street and High Street

Designed in 1927 by R F Draffin of Grierson, Aimer and Draffin, this is a fine example of a 'Chicago style' office building. The facade has three distinct tiers, each with carefully detailed Grecian motifs. It is clad in English sandstone with a base course of Coromandel granite. The central tier emphasises the vertical nature of this early 'high rise' structure. The entrance has ornamental bronze lamps and the foyer contains black Belgian marble dadoes carved in a chevron pattern, and fine ornamental grilles.

Open: Lobby only

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Occidental Hotel

6-8 Vulcan Lane

Constructed in 1884 on the site of a former hotel of the same name, the Occidental with its Italianate facade is
a fine example of a Victorian corner public house. It was built for Edward Perkins, an American sailor who set new standards in hotel keeping in the city. In addition to the bar and accommodation, the hotel provided a reading room, billiard room and a museum of curios, paintings, animals and birds. This hotel and the 130-year-old Queen's Ferry nearby make an important contribtion to the scale and character of Vulcan Lane. Few groups of Victorian commercial buildings of this age and style remain in downtown Auckland. The Occidental, frequented originally by speculators, sportsmen and bookies is now popular with the city's journalists and business people.

Open: Public bar

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Old Arts Building, University of Auckland

22 Princes Street

This elegant building, completed in 1926, was designed within the Gothic tradition. The design was chosen by competition, in which the winners were Lippincott and Billson. R A Lippincott was an American architect who had worked in Chicago and then travelled to Australia and New Zealand. Beneath the tower is a vaulted and galleried octagonal space with a mosaic floor and piers forming an arcade. Originally the center of campus life, the building is a significant Auckland landmark and a symbol of the university.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Public Trust Building

11-17 Mayoral Drive

Designed by architects Hoggard and Prouse, the Public Trust Building was completed in 1912. The columns of the facade are based on those of the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli near Rome. The building was designed as a 'strongbox' to safeguard valuable papers from 'pillage, fire and water' and is an early example of steel frame and concrete construction. The classical forms with ornate capitals and detailing of the facade make an important contribution to the streetscape.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Smith and Caughey Building

Corner Wellesley Street and Elliott Street

This significant Auckland landmark, completed in 1929, was designed by Roy Lippincott, an American architect who had recieved his training with the Chicago
school architects. The seven storied building exhibits some of the characteristic features of 'tall office buildings' as set out by Chicago architect Louis Sullivan. The three tiers express the various parts of the building, the department store, offices and
the double-storey arched windows of the Lyceum Club.

Smith & Caughey was established in 1882 by William Smith and Andrew Clarke Caughey, his brother in law. They had both emigrated from Northern Ireland to New Zealand a few years earlier. Their initial success is attributed to Andrew Caughey's visit to London in 1885 to set up an agency to buy directly from British merchants. Thus avoiding the charges of
New Zealand wholesalers. This enabled Smith and Caughey to offer substantially lower prices and lay secure foundation of the company. The 120 year old company is stll run by the Caughey family today.

Open: Retail space

Registered as a Category I historic place

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St Andrew's Church (Presbyterian)

Corner Alten Road and Symonds Street

This church, the oldest Presbyterian church in Auckland, was designed by Walter Robertson and built between 1847 and 1850. Originally it was a simple bluestone building with a gable and window surrounds of Mahurangi stone. In 1882 the Doric portico and tower were added. Designed by Matthew Henderson the tower is a prominent Auckland landmark. St Andrew's remains an important Presbyterian church.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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St James Theatre

314 Queen Street

St James' Theatre, designed by Harry White for the Fuller company, was completed in 1928 and was first known as the 'New Opera House'. It replaced the former Fuller opera house in Wellesley Street, which burned down in 1926. White was a specialist in theatre design and the interior of the St James is an especially successful example of his art.

Over the Queen Street entrance foyer there was originally a tower with a touret, surmounted with a globe. This tower was removed in the 1950s. The theatre's interior was carefully designed in the Spanish missionary style down to the individual fittings. The foyers were lit by thousands of coloured incandescent globes, hidden behind the plasterwork and leadlight. Although the building was designed for touring vaudeville acts, it was wired for sound in 1929 and showed its first film on Boxing Day that year.

In 1945, Kerridge Theatres Ltd.bought the building and brought back live shows. In 1960 it became part of the Westend Cinema complex, called the Theatre Centre. Nowadays it functions as a live music venue.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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St John Ambulance National Office

Corner Beresford Street and Pitt Street

This Edwardian Baroque building on Beresford Street, constructed in stages from 1912 onwards, was designed as the Central Fire Station by Goldsbro' and Wade.

The detail work, the alternating bands of red and buff bricks, the dressings and decorative lead rainwater heads are notable. The original design also included oriel windows and gables. This building was designed for horsedrawn fire engines and encloses a central courtyard which can be entered through a large arch, above which the magnificent bell tower with a copper roofed dome is located. This tower contained the kitchen and living area. Adjoining was the administrative block and the stables.

The Pitt Street frontage , designed as well by Goldsbro' and Wade was built in 1901, a modified example of antipodian Queen Anne revival style, popular in New Zealand and Australia. In 1944, the buildings where taken over by the St. John's Ambulance as their Auckland headquarters.

In the mid 1990s, the building was purchased by a private investor and acommodates commercial businesses, retail and apartments.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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St Matthew's in the City

Corner Wellesley Street and Hobson Street

Designed by the English Gothic Revival architect F L Pearson this church is built of Oamaru stone. The construction was supervised by the Auckland architect
Edward Bartley. Sited on the ridge above the Queen Street valley, this fine Gothic Revival church with its pinnacled tower is a familiar Auckland landmark. The interior has double side aisles with rib vaulting and clerestories above. The wide nave is a fine example of vaulting.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Former Synagogue

Corner of Princes Street and Bowen Avenue

Designed by Edward Bartley and completed in 1885 this distinctive white plastered building has a variety of Romanesque and Eastern decorative motifs, in particular horseshoe arches. The interior features an ornate decorative plasterwork 'ark' with a stained glass vault. The main ceiling is a barrel vault which has stencilled decorations and cusped Gothic vents. This is one remaining example of ornamental style popular in Victorian times.

The building is also notable as an early example of mass concrete construction. Until 1969 it was occupied by the Jewish community at which time it was bought by Auckland City. Proposals for the site included demolition for street widening and the building of a hotel, a restaurant, office building were discussed over a decade. In 1988, the decision was made to refurbish the building for the National Bank . In the intervening years the vacant synagogue had suffered extensive damage.The refurbishment was undertaken by Salmond Architects, Devonport, Auckland. The stunning restoration won an award in 1989 by the Historic Places Trust.

Open: Bank hours only

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Terrace of Houses

25-29 Symonds Street

These finely detailed Queen Anne style houses, probably built in 1897, were commissioned by Cornishman John Endean, a mining entrepreneur and hotelier, for his children. The three townhouses are often referred to as the Doctors' Houses, as No. 25 probably incorporated a surgery and dispensary on Abercrombie (now St Paul's) Street for Frederick Endean who later became a Harley Street, London , specialist.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Terrace of Shops

456-486 Queen Street

These shops were designed between 1908 and 1912, T W May and Alexander Wiseman being the principal architects involved. They form the longest row of terraced shops in Auckland. Although designed in groups the shops are united by their uniform height and bay size, use of materials and in particular by the stepped vaulted verandah which was originally supported on cast iron columns.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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The Civic Theatre

Corner Queen Street and Wellesley Street

When the Civic Theatre first opened its doors on December 20, 1929 it was a gala occasion for the whole city. Thousands flocked to what was billed as the "greatest event in the Dominion's history of the motion picture industry" and in scenes of pandemonium the theatres front door was pushed in by the huge crowd.

The theatre had been built for local business entreprenur, Thomas O'Brien, who hoped to establish a chain of mammoth atmospheric theatres throughout New Zealand. He chose an oriental decorative scheme and the Melbourne architectural firm of Bohringer, Taylor and Johnson was commissioned to build a 'glorious picture palace' in Auckland. It was, said O'Brien, to be called the Civic Theatre and it would have more than 3000 seats, making it only slightly smaller than the fabled Radio City of New York.

Fletcher Construction Company undertook the building's construction, completing it in a record 33 weeks, with much of the decorative work manufactured off-site. There was a huge rush for jobs and queues of shabbily suited men lined the perimeter of the site each morning hoping for work. Its entertainment and movies were the draw card, but for the public the Civic Theatre's enduring charm would lie in its wonderfully exotic interior. To walk through its doors was to enter a world of prancing horses, buddhas, elephants, greeneyed panthers and palm trees, set in a Moorish interior of graceful domes, minarets, latticework and arches silhouetted against an indigo-blue sky dotted with brilliant twinkling stars.

Sadly, by 1931 O'Briens dreams had crashed, a victim of the Great Depression and dwindling audiences, and the theatre was taken over by Williamson's Films Limited. However, it staged a revival during the Second World War when it offered some of the best live entertainment in town for the thousands of American servicemen in Auckland. The Civic Theatre remained a cinema and centre for live performances throughout the next five decades, but it's charms had faded.

In 1997 Auckland City Council voted to undertake a $45.5 million restoration project and on December 20, 1999, 70 years to the day from its first official opening, the Civic Theatre was re-opened to the public in all its former opulent glory.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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The Customhouse

Corner Customs Street West and Albert Street

Rendolent of purposeful Victorianism, the old Customhouse on the corner of Customs and Albert Street was designed by Edward Mahoney and Sons as a government department building in 1887. It was completed two years later and retained its original use as the city's customs house until 1972 when the building was vacated and a threat of demolition loomed.

For the next seven years it lay neglected and a public campaign to 'Save the Customhouse' was mounted, with local entertainer Les Andrews to the fore.

By the late 1970s the Customhouse was recognised as a building of high significance and worthy of retention by the city. In December 1979 the Auckland City Council and Auckland Regional Authority were approved as the Customhouse Reserves Board to act as its administrative body under the Reserves Act. Then a few months later, in a curious twist, it literally took on a new lease of life when a visiting American developer, John Hulbert, looked out of his bedroom window at the then South Pacific Hotel and saw the splendid old building in a dilapidated state. He loved it on sight and submitted an exciting proposal for the restoration of the Customhouse, which included retail space and an entertainment centre.

Government Life invested $2.5 million into the building and took on a renewable long-term lease from the Reserves Board with the consent of the Crown. In February 1982 the refurbished building was opened to the public but just two months later the Customhouse went into voluntary liquidation and closed.

After another extensive restoration the Customhouse is a home to overseas designer boutiques and speciality shops,
its interiors alone well worth a visit.

Open: Retail outlets open daily

Registered as a Category I historic place

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The Ferry Building

99 Quay Street

A distinctive Auckland landmark, completed in 1912 on land reclaimed by the Auckland Harbour Board, this Edwardian Baroque building was designed by Alex Wiseman.

It is constructed of sandstone and brick, with a base of Coromandel granite. The tower houses the in 1913 designed four faced clock, built by W.H. Bailey of Manchester. A time ball was installed on top of the tower to provide visual evidence of exact moment of noon so that ship chronometers could be set precisely. The Ferry Building has been the transit point for the harbour vehicular and passenger ferries, that served the settlements around the harbour. Today it continues to provide a vital link with the North Shore and the nearby islands. The building has recently been adapted for office and retail use and restaurants.

Open; Building may be viewed from the street

Registered as a Category I historic place

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The Northern Club

Cnr Princes and Kitchener St

That long-established Auckland landmark, The Northern Club, on the corner of Princes and Kitchener Streets was founded in 1869. The club was formed under its original name - 'The Union Club' - in Ewen's Buildings, on the site which had formerly housed Wood's Royal Hotel, and was purchased for a sum of
money 'not exceeding £5,500'. It's distinctive iron railings date from 1897 and its walls have been clad with virginia creeper since first planted in 1927. For 121 years it remained a 'gentlemens club', but admitted its first woman member in November 1990. In the early 1990's the Northern Club underwent an extensive refurbishment which today happily blends old and new in architectural style and comfort.

Acknowledgement: City Scene - Auckland City Council

Open: Private property, not open to the public

Registered as a Category I historic place

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The Stables

St Benedicts Street

In 1882 George and William Winstone
purchased land in Newton, on which 'Winstone Stables' were built, to cater for the horses used in the family's expanding coal and cartage business. The Stables, located by Symonds Street, in the aptly named Stable Lane, was substantial and included a weighbridge, cart dock and cobbled entrance. The building was architecturally designed with two tall gabled halls, ornamental in the fashionable classic Italianate style of the age - an elegant shed. Its shed character was reinforced by the use of corrugated iron for cladding on the upper walls
of the building.

By the 1920s Winstone's had entered the motorised era and the company's few remaining horses were moved to the Mt Eden depot. Vehicles did not replace horses at The Stables, but light fittings did as the building was leased to Claude Neon lights. In 1945 the building was sold to a food processing company and later to Brierley Investments and later, in about 1984 it was leased and transformed into studios for wood workers and artists, a 'collective' which include iron works, a photographer and fashion designer. The
atmosphere, as a working place with concrete floors and remnants of the old stables wtill in evidence, was popular with the creative community who worked there until vacating the property in 1998, when sold by its owners Auckland City Council to an Auckland property developer.

Council placed a heritage covenant against the title, as a condition of sale, which has kept the character of the building intact through the recent architectural restoration work.

The Stables at St Benedict's Street have long been popular with Aucklanders keen to preserve the city's heritage.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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The Town Hall

303 Queen Street

The competition for the design of the Town Hall was won by Messers J J and E J Clark of Melbourne and the building was completed in 1911. The style is Edwardian Baroque. The main hall has the elliptical shape of a Roman circus and the council chamber is semicircular. Constructed on a triangular site with a tower at the apex, the Town Hall is an important Auckland landmark. Extensively refurbished in the late nineties. Due to its upgrade in accoustics it is now an excellent venue for orchestral performances.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Union Fish former Marine Workshops

16-18 Quay Street

Designed for W.A. Ryan & Co. , a firm of marine engineers. The building has always been conected with Auckland's shipping industry. Both Northern and the Union Steamship Company leased the building as a marine engineer repair workshop. Four bays of this building, probably designed by Goldsbro' and Wade and constructed circa 1906, remain. The elaborate Queen Anne Revival facade orginally included decorative gables.

Although the building had a utilitarian purpose as a ship repair workshop, the facade's carefully detailed banded brick archways with large keystone motifs reflect the philosophy of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Built on land that had been newly reclaimed, this warehouse
indicated the importance of the port in the growth of Auckland City. In 1977 it became part of the Mission for Seamen
complex. It was later occupied by a restaurant and nightclub.

Owned by Auckland City, it was integrated into the Britomart Transport development along with the other heritage buildings at the waterfront.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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Wharf Police Building

Corner of Britomart Place and Quay Street

Built as the head office and store for the New Zealand branch of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, this building was designed by Charles Arnold of Arnold and Abbott. It is constructed of brick with stone mouldings and has neoclassical details such as arch dressings. Communication with the refinery at Birkenhead was by lighters which crossed the harbour at regular intervals each day. Sugar and other products were brought across from the Chelsea refinery for distribution by rail or ship throughout New Zealand and overseas.

It was owned and occupied by the Wharf Police from the mid-60s and sold in 1994 to a private owner. The building retains its original pressed metal ceiling and wooden panelling. Owned by Auckland City, it is to be integrated into the Britomart Transport development along with the other heritage buildings at the waterfront.

Registered as a Category I historic place

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