Introduction
Early European settlement initially centred on the foreshore and grew southward; the rising ground and marshy land in this area was about the town limits. The first gaol was sited at the intersection of Queen and Victoria Streets. However, as the commercial area grew and the city prospered retail and entertainment enterprises were built in this part of the city. In 1873 the city markets relocated from down- town to a large building approximately on the site of the Aotea Centre. Imposing two and often three-storied masonry retail and warehouse buildings were at the Queen Street, Wellesley Street crossroads. On the north-west corner was the United Services Hotel, now the Civic Hotel and London Bar. The Fullers Opera House was situated on the corner of Elliot and Wellesley Streets. By the last two decades of the nineteenth century opera, vaudeville and hotels were thriving in the area and with the introduction of film even more so. The intersection of Queen Street and Wellesley Street was an early transportation hub with trams from Karangahape Rd and Ponsonby intersecting with transport down Queen Street. The first horse-drawn trams from Wellesley Street to Ponsonby began in August 1884. Two horses drew the tram with a third ridden by a boy in the front to assist with the steep incline up Wellesley Street West. Reaching Hobson Street, the boy rode down again to wait for the next tram. Electric tram services started in the early 1900s. Major civic amenities developed in this area between the 1880s and 1910s when the city's first purpose-built Art Gallery and Library and the Town hall were constructed. These functions have remained and expanded over time. This upper part of the central city remains a vibrant focus for theatres and cinemas, civic administration, Auckland's main public library and the Art Gallery. Start at the corner of Victoria Street and Queen Street.
The Establishment of Early Auckland
The narrow Auckland isthmus, located between the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea, was well known to the great Polynesian navigators who settled Aotearoa (New Zealand) a thousand years ago.Ta-maki Herenga Waka – 'Ta-maki – the Destination of Voyagers' is an ancient name for the Auckland Isthmus. Waka (canoes) arriving from the Pacific Islands with new seed stocks and migrants sought the narrowest part of the isthmus at Ota-huhu in south Auckland, with its 800m portage between our two great oceans. Later voyagers found Ta-maki heavily populated. Some married into local communities while others continued south in search of new lands. With excellent gardening soils, fish stocks and natural fortifications - the volcanic cones - Ta-maki became and still is today, the centre of the largest Maori civilisation in the world.Through Hua Kaiwaka's leadership the various tribes of the Ta-maki Isthmus were united under the confederation known as Te Waiohua. Under his reign, Ta-maki saw an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity that lead to sayings such as : 'Te pai me te whai rawa o Tamaki'; 'The wealth and luxury of Tamaki'.Ngati Whatua, provoked into attack by Te Waiohua in the mid seventeenth century, took control of the Isthmus through peace marriages and occupation of the volcanic fortresses. However, peace would be interrupted again two generations later as the local tribes were displaced during the inter-tribal 'Musket Wars' that engulfed the country from 1820 to 1840.In September 1840 Ngati Whatua leader Te Kawau gifted 3000 acres of land to Governor Hobson on behalf of the crown. The central commercial district of modern Auckland was included in this gift that established the city. Te Kawau sought military protection, new medicines and trade to bring peace and prosperity to his people. Within 20 years he had lost nearly all his land and was shut out of city administration and governance. Despite this, his descendants have today recovered much of their valuable land in central Auckland and are significant contributors to the local economy and cultural life of the city.The first group of settlers and government officials travelled from Russell in the Bay of Islands to Auckland on the Anna Watson in late September 1840. Auckland was chosen as the capital of New Zealand because, like Maori before them, the colonial government recognised its strategic location with access to the Waitemata, Manukau and Kaipara Harbours and to the interior of the North Island by way of the Waikato River. It remained the capital until 1865 when the function was transferred to Wellington. From the outset, Commercial Bay at the base of Queen Street was the commercial centre of the settlement. In 1841 Surveyor General, Felton Mathew, drew up a plan for the new city. His starting point was the Waihorotiu Stream, later dubbed the "Ligar Canal"�, which ran down present-day Queen Street into Commercial Bay. Though parts of the plan were later abandoned, Mathew's design provides the layout for many of the city's main streets and the reclamations of Freemans Bay, Commercial Bay and Mechanics Bay.By 1844 Queen, Princes and Shortland streets were formed and metalled. The government centre developed around the Princes Street area where soon were located Government House, the parliament, the court and the barracks for the British 58th Regiment as well as the substantial homes of many of Auckland's leading citizens. Shortland Street, which linked Commercial Bay with the government centre, became the first and most developed commercial thoroughfare in the city.Auckland grew rapidly. By 1841 the population was 2000, made up of settlers relocating from the Bay of Islands, immigrants from Australia and Great Britain, and Maori. Religious orders also made Auckland their base with large land holdings being established by the Roman Catholic Church in Freemans Bay and the Church of England in Parnell. The early commercial life of the settlement was based on gum, timber, flax, and fat stock farming and re-exporting to other settlements.While initial development focussed on Commercial Bay at the bottom of Queen Street, by 1864 the limits of Auckland were Parnell in the east and Freemans Bay in the west. During the 1860s, after the drainage and health problems caused by the Ligar Canal had been resolved, Queen Street began to progressively overtake Shortland Street as the predominant commercial strip. Substantial reclamation of the Waitemata Harbour was carried out during the 1860s and 1870s and continued throughout the 1880s. Auckland soon became the major port in northern New Zealand and a chief port of call for the Pacific.During the 1870s and 1880s there was a great surge in immigration. The population expanded from 7000 in 1861 to 33,000 in 1886. This led to great commercial expansion and the building of more substantial masonry buildings of two and three storeys. In this period the art gallery and library, the hospital and many churches, hotels andcommercial buildings were constructed.Progressive periods of redevelopment reinforced Queen Street as the commercial, retail, transportation and entertainment hub of Auckland. After the 1920s the mixture of residential, warehousing and industrial uses in the inner city were steadily replaced by commercial uses. Recent development in the central area has seen a more vibrant mixture of residential and commercial uses occur. A growing interest in the history of the city has led to the retention of many of Auckland's significant heritage buildings.
Site of the old Gaol and Courthouse
The city's first gaol was on the site of the National Bank and Phillips Fox buildings until 1856 when the last of the prisoners were moved to the Mt Eden prison. The entire block bounded by Victoria Street West, Elliot Street, Darby and Queen Street containeda courthouse, gaols, hard labour yard, stocks and gallows. The site was the setting of Auckland's grimmer scenes where one could be tried and sentenced, locked up, hung and then buried all within a few yards. The Waihorotiu Stream also flowed through here, and in 1987 when the foundations of the present buildings were constructed, a Maori settlement site and artifacts were found dating back to the fifteenth century. The following is a Maori song from the 1850s that bluntly illustrates one indigenous view of early Auckland: I am going to Auckland tomorrow, The abode of the Pakeha, The place tobacco and blankets are sold, Where the Governor and the soldiers live, Where the prison stands, Where the ships lie, The fire boats are seen, Where men are hung; Tomorrow I shall go to Auckland. Looking up Victoria Street West, the most stunning addition to the city's skyline, Auckland's Skytower, was opened on 3 August 1997. Designed by architects Craig Craig Moller, it is 328 metres high and is the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere.
Darby's Building
Walk along Queen Street and turn right into Darby Street (Corner Darby and Elliot Streets). Walter Darby, manufacturer's agent and warehouseman, established his business in the early 1900s and commissioned this handsome building in 1908. Amongst the enormous variety of goods, he was the sole agent for Boomerang Teas and Marsuma Cigars - 6d for 10. It is now the home of one of the oldest surviving retailers in the city, Tanfield & Potter Co. importers of fine china.
The Strand Arcade
Walk along Elliot Street and turn into the Strand Arcade (233-237 Queen Street).The Strand was built in 1900 and described at the time as 'incomparably the largest and finest building of its kind in New Zealand'. It was fitted with the latest developments in lifts, ventilation and lighting. Many of the shops were rented to the city's leading businessmen and it became a fashionable shopping place for the Auckland elite. A dining room in the basement had seating for 700 people. A glass roof was installed in 1910 after the owner Mr Arthur Myers had admired the glass-domed Burlington Arcade in Piccadilly, London. In 1916 the Strand Theatre was opened with a wide marble staircase leading from the arcade to the foyer. The whole building was remodelled in 1970.
Old ASB Building
Turn right into Queen St. Opposite is the former ASB, now McDonald's (260 Queen Street).Now McDonald's this was formerly the main branch of the Auckland Savings Bank, which was formed in 1847 and has been a major part of Auckland commerce since. The founders, John Logan Campbell, J. Dilworth and J.J. Montefiore, were prominent businessmen closely involved in the building of the city's commercial centre. The Auckland Savings Bank headquarters opened here in 1884. The Italianate facade and elaborately decorated main hall was designed by Edward Bartley to reflect the bank's principles of security, stability and prosperity. In 1968 it was sold and adapted for a McDonald's restaurant, which has harmoniously fitted into the former banking chamber. Inside, most of the decorative plaster ceiling and tile floor can still be admired.
Mid City Centre
Continue along Queen Street (260 Queen Street).The mirror glass-clad facade of the Mid City Centre was built as part of a wave of new development in central Auckland in the 1980s. Designed by Sinclair Johns Architects for Chase Corporation, it initially housed a cinema complex.
Smith and Caughey's Department Store
253-261 Queen Street.Smith & Caughey's is the archetype and sole Auckland survivor of the great family department store era. Marianne Smith, a pioneering businesswoman, started a drapery store in 1880 and was joined by her brother Andrew Caughey in 1882. In the mid-1880s the store moved to its present site. The fine art deco building, built 1927-29, was designed by American Roy Lippincott, of the Chicago architectural school. A meeting room especially for the Auckland Lyceum Club was included. Formed in 1919 as the Auckland Women's Club, the aim was to 'establish a club for women interested in social, political and artistic affairs'. Members were active in campaigning on women's and children's welfare, standing for public office and parliament. Ellen Melville, a founding member of the Lyceum, was the first woman elected to the Auckland City Council in 1913.
The Civic Hotel and London Bar
Corner Queen and Wellesley Streets.This corner hotel began life as the United Services Hotel in the mid-1870s. The upstairs London Bar has been a popular jazz venue for over 50 years, with many of New Zealand's leading jazz musicians having played here. In 1959 the building was refurbished and renamed the Civic Hotel.
T&G Building
Cross the road and look up Wellesley Street (17-31 Wellesley Street).The tower on the T&G Building up the hill on Wellesley Street represents the strength of the Temperance and General Mutual Life Assurance Society which remodelled the entire building in 1928. Archibald Clark & Sons Ltd was one of the biggest and oldest warehouses and manufacturers in Auckland when they commissionedthe building in 1910. A draper from Scotland, Archibald Clark, opened his first drapery business in 1850 and became the first mayor of Auckland.
Civic Theatre
269-285 Queen Street.In the 1920s this area was the theatre district of Auckland, with the picture-palaces of the Majestic and Regent on Queen Street and across the road the St James. In 1929 Thomas O'Brien secured the lease to the Civic site and commissioned a new theatre to be the 'largest in the Dominion'�. It was to seat over two thousand people and the distance from the projector to the screen was only slightly less than that in Radio City Hall in New York. It accommodated live performances of dancing and music as well as tearooms and dances. Designed by Bohringer Taylor and Johnson, the amazing interiors of this "atmospheric theatre" with Persian, Moorish and Hindu motifs create an exotic and magical world. The ceiling over the main auditorium gives the illusion of a starlit night sky. The Wintergarden Night club - famous for the legendry dancer Freda Stark who is reputed to have danced in nothing but gold paint - earned a reputation with American GIs in World War II. Alterations over the years saw the removal of some of the lavish decoration. The Civic Theatre was conserved and upgraded in the late 1990s. Equipped for both film and live shows it remains one of the most memorable and best-loved venues in Auckland.
Civic House and Fergusson House
287-295 Queen Street.Civic House and Fergusson House to the left of the Civic Theatre were designed by Sinclair O'Connor in 1929. Civic House was built for Tanfield Potter & Co, importers of fine pottery and glassware. The window displays of luxury imported goods were always a fascination for the Auckland brides with their wedding lists. The front parts of both buildings have been incorporated with the Village Force cinema and entertainment centre behind, which opened in the late 1990s.
Aotea Square and Aotea Centre
Continue up Queen Street along the edge of Aotea Square.In pre-European times this open space was a rush filled swamp rich in bird life and the source of the Horotiu stream that ran down the Queen Street Valley. In 1855 a Crown Grant designated this area for the purpose of a public market to Auckland City. In 1868 it was drained and filled and in June 1873 the New City Market was opened. Brett's 1878 Auckland Almanac describes it: 'The Market House, with galvanised roof, in cruciform shape. The stalls are neatly formed, and on Saturday evening present a very animated sight - almost every kind of trade being represented, from the purveyor of mutton and beef to the garrulous itinerant vendor of smoked fish, sweetmeats, crockery, and children's toys.' Generations later, the buildings on the south western edge of Aotea Square became the Cook Street markets of the hippie era, selling arts, crafts and exotic Asian products. Also in the buildings was the night club, Ace of Clubs, which hosted the talented artists of the day. Since the 1960s many schemes have been proposed for the area to be developed as the Civic Administration Centre for government and city council offices - one plan included eight high rise buildings. The Civic Administration Building and Bledisloe House form part of this planned development. Aotea Square was created in 1974, and the Aotea Performing Arts and Conference Centre was completed in late 1989. The carved ceremonial gateway with Maori motifs was created by Selwyn Mutu. It represents welcome to the city and the civic centre.
Sir Dove Myer Robinson
The bronze statue of the small man with arm raised, commemorates Auckland's longest-serving mayor - affectionately known as 'Robbie'. He was mayor from 1959 to 1965 and again from 1968 until 1980. With his working-class origins and leftist politics he was a man before his time, espousing conservation issues and advocating rapid rail for Auckland in 1968.
Town Hall
301-303 Queen Street.When the site for the Council Chambers and Town Hall was chosen in 1908 it was derided for being in the valley and that a building on a triangular site would look 'exactly like a deformed wedge of cheese or a decrepit flat iron'. The design competition was won by J. Clark & Sons from Australia and the foundation stone laid in February 1909. Public criticism continued during construction; it was described as a 'monument to the stupendous folly of the City Council'. It opened in December 1911. The main auditorium seated 3000 and the concert chamber 880 and filled a great need for a capacious public hall. It was used as council headquarters until 1955. In 1996 complete conservation and refurbishment was undertaken. In the lobby, plaques commemorate John Court and Ellen Melville - prominent Aucklanders.
The Sunday School Building
By Aotea Square cross to opposite side of Queen Street, and continue up to Mayoral Drive. Looking across to the west side of Queen Street (323-327 Queen Street). The Sunday School Union Building dates from 1925, and was originally the headquarters of a co-operative of six protestant Sunday Schools which affiliated to form a union in 1865 to train teachers and act as a resource for rural areas. Offices, lecture rooms and the bookshop are still used. The plaques on the outside read "Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God" (Luke 12:31) and "Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth" (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
Queens Head Hotel Facade
404 Queen Street.The Queens Head pub was built in 1868 by Henry Adams. It fell victim to"facadism" - an architectural aberration of the 1980s - which preserved the historic facade and built a modern mirror glass building behind.
Airedale Street House
If you're feeling fit and want to see two of the oldest cottages in the city, cross to the southern side of Mayoral Drive, walk along and turn right into Airedale Street. Continue up the hill till opposite the small houses at No. 30 Airedale St. Built by Thomas Rusden, a stone mason, the earliest part of these cottages dates from 1856. They are a rare example of early workers' houses in central Auckland. The cottages remained domestic dwellings until late in the 1940s when commercial development expanded into the inner city residential area. There has been a variety of uses: in the 1970s as an art gallery and in the 1980s as "The Corporal's Restaurant".
MLC Building
Retrace your steps back to Queen Street, and continue down the western side (380 Queen Street).The Building Progress magazine of April 1957 headed the article on this building 'Majestic'. Built for the Mutual Life Corporation, it was the tallest building in Auckland occupying an important triangular corner site opposite the Town Hall. It was the first major office building erected in the business heart of the city since 1940 and marked the beginning of an era of greater confidence and growth. The site had previously been occupied by a famous dinner- dance venue "Trocadera" which had been popular with American servicemen and their 'gals' in the high-living days of World War II.
Methodist Church
This site was gifted to the Primitive Methodists by Governor Grey and the first church was built here in 1851. The Methodist Mission continues to serve the spiritual and practical needs of the city with 38,000 meals and 1300 food parcels provided to those in need from this site during the past year alone. In addition to regular church services, the Chapel is used by a wide range of community groups including the NZ Peace Foundation and Nuclear Free NZ who have met here annually for 20 years. The present church dates from 1963.
Senior College of Education Building
Cross Queen Street and turn right into Rutland Street (66-70 Lorne Street). The art deco facades of this building present polychromatic patterns and geometrical textures in the brickwork. Its varied history has included belonging to the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of New Zealand, a car showroom and garage and a factory for whiteware. Between 1930 and 1952 the Peter Pan Cabaret was in part of the building, popular with GIs during the Second World War and later as a venue for school balls. In 1956 it became the Office of State Advances, later the Housing Corporation and Housing New Zealand. Since the mid-1990s it has been the Senior College of Education.
Public Library
Lorne Street.The first library in Auckland was at the Mechanics Institute, a small wooden building in Chancery Street, in 1842. In 1880 the collection was taken over by the Auckland City Council and became the first public library in New Zealand. With the donation of Sir George Grey's considerable collection it became necessary to have a purpose-built building. What is now the Auckland City Art Gallery was opened in March 1887 as the Library, Art Gallery and Municipal Buildings. The present library dates from 1971 and was designed by City Council architect Euan Wainscott. It houses valuable collections of photographs, maps and documents. The Auckland City Archive is in the basement and is also open to the public.
St James Theater
Lorne Street/314 Queen Street.The St James Theatre was built by vaudeville pioneers Fullers Ltd to replace their opera house which had burned down in 1926. While it was designed for vaudeville, with the introduction of 'talkies' the theatre was wired for sound in 1929. The theatre and foyers are decorated in Spanish Mission style. Patrons were entertained by piano playing in the foyer during interval and its own newsreels, entitled 'The St James Airmail Review'. After World War II the live shows returned with musicals, Royal Variety and the New Zealand Ballet Company. In the 1990s it became a dance party venue and continues to be used for live performances.
New Gallery (Former Telephone Exchange)
38 Lorne Street.Cross Wellesley Street, go up to Kitchener Street. The buildings on the corner of Wellesley and Lorne Streets were the subject of a forward-thinking renovation in the early 1990s. Named The New Gallery, the former Auckland Central Telephone Exchange was transformed into a gallery for contemporary art with and spaces for dealer galleries. With larger spaces for touring exhibitions, an artist's project space, and learning facilities, the New Gallery makes art accessible to a wide range of people. The two buildings date from 1917 and 1926 respectively; they housed the main switching exchange for Auckland. In the days before automatic switching, hundreds of operators were employed.
St James Apartments
28 Wellesley Street.Now apartments, this building was constructed in 1910 for the YMCA (Young Mens Christian Association). It was designed by Alexander Wiseman who also designed the Ferry Building. It contained a gym, dining room, billiard room, snack bar, lounges, reading room, piano, radio, table tennis, concert hall, chapel and hostel. The YMCA ran programmes for servicemen during World War II. By 1955 it had become too small, with up to 1500 young people crowding the building each week and a new, larger YMCA complex in Pitt street was built in its place.
Auckland Art Gallery
1 Kitchener Street.In choosing this hillside corner site, the City Council proposed a building worthy of the growing city and the important collections donated by Sir George Grey and James Mackelvie. The design brief called for a multi-use building to hold the public library, art gallery and council offices. A design competition was won by Melbourne architects Grainger and D'Ebro. The winning design was this impressive French chateau-style building which opened in 1887. The building is now entirely devoted to art and contains the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand.
