The City’s Youth

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 895, 12 February 1930, Page 10

The City’s Youth

Queen Street of the Eighties

A THOROUGHFARE in which the rumble of heavily-shod wheels and the clatter of hoofs are the predominating sounds; a place flanked with those once-familiar colonial buildings that followed slavishly the worst features of Victorian architecture ... That was Queen Street in 1887. Not so long ago, one murmurs, yet the changes wrought by the years have been startling’. Here and there along the shopfronts are aged survivors, maintaining a passive resistance against the forces of high-flung concrete and steel.

As one journeys back to the palmy colonial days before the first mutterings of the Boer War, the buildings that have so tenaciously existed become valuable landmarks, defining this old site and that, marking hidden boundaries and solving the dozen and one puzzles that time has set. In the Old Colonists’ Museum, a black-and-white front elevation of each side of Queen Street as it appeared in the ’eighties, provides another guide. The bareness of the outline thus portrayed constitutes its chief interest to modern eyes, though once it was impressive enough to inspire the title of ‘‘Queen City.” So we find ourselves in Lower Queen Street, facing an area occupied in solitary pride by the tower and building of the Auckland Railway Station. Today it is spending its brief remaining days in stifled seclusion behind the chief post office. Then it went unchallenged in the immediate vicinity. Separated from the corner of Customs Street by a small section containing hoarding on which were plastered sundry advertisements, was the four-storeyed building of the Waverley Hotel, now enlarged and extended to the intersection. On the other side of the street were a group of three-storeyed structures —placid forebears of the mammoth Dilwortli building of today. A little further on were a pair of quaint buildings, each of two floors, and the larger premises of E. and A. Isaacs, merchants and auctioneers. Next came the offices of Stone Brothers, shipping merchants, the auctioneering rooms of Gabriel Lewis, and the more impressive offices of the Standard Insurance Company. Today these have been replaced or represented by such buildings as the Cooke's, the Commercial Bank of Australia, and the Imperial Hotel. Between Fort and Shortland Streets in ISS7 stood the Victoria Arcade, as ft stands today, then monarch of all it surveyed in the ornate glory of red brickwork. By far the most impressive Queen Street building of its time, it still maintains a proud if obsolete outlook, despite the disappearance of the interior right-of-way that gave point to Its name. Among the names displayed from structures of various but moderate dimensions beyond Shortland Street were those of the South British Insurance Company on the site recently vacated, and on the corner of Vulcan Lane, the Industrial and Provident Building Society, now Eady’s musical headquarters. Beyond, a dull line of two-storeyed buildings led one to Champtaloup and Cooper, booksellers and the premises of E. Porter and Company’s ironmongery, Heighton and Company’s land agency in the Canada Buildings, and B. Tonks and Companv, auctioneers.

Past Durham Street the premises of T. and S. Morrin and Co., Ltd., ironmongers, and J. R. Hanna, photographic studio, reached to the site of John Court, Ltd.’s, present building. Names familiar today were scattered here and there along the remaining block. The Australian Mutual Provident Society, the Auckland Savings Bank, and Messrs. Cruickshank and Miller and Company's hardware shop, whose premises are to be seen today, stood side by. side with such half-forgotten names as Robson’s Dining Rooms, Goodson's London Arcade, and others. Today three big theatres share the valuable space, every foot of which has been used.

As a whole the western side of Queen Street has changed less than its partner. Several important buildings, such as the premises of the Bank of New Zealand and Union Bank of Australia, lent dignity to the row and stood out prominently beside less permanent structures. In the lower block opposite what is now the Chief Post Office stood the businesses of T. 11. Hall and Co., merchants and importers; Ross and Hume, sailmakers; the Pacific Mail Company, the Auckland Tramway Company, Mrs. Annie Connelly’s restaurant, and others. The largest building was that shared by the Northern River Steam Navigation Company and the Union Steam Ship Company. Beyond Customs Street in the ’eighties were names such as the Waitemata Hotel and Thorndoa Smith and Firth's mill —a tower-like building of six low floors and a roof peculiarly like a Victorian man’s tasselled nightcap. In its honour the present building on that site is still titled “The Old Mill.”

Flanking Exchange Lane was the building of the Norwich Union Insurance Company, now known as Mining Chambers. A few yards further on was another notable building, that of the New Zealand Insurance Company, with its dignified turrets and large clock-tower. Despite its striking size and design, the present premises are of no greater comparative importance. Next again were the premises of the Colonial Bank.

Various half-forgotten names filled the next block and beyond Victoria Street Arthur's Mart was a recognised centre. Darby Street, immediately beyond, divided it from the Thistle Hotel and the remaining building of the row that ended with Mrs. Jane Smith’s drapery, Wm. McArthur and Company, and the United Service Hotel, on the spot where it stands today.

Queen Street in 1887 was unbroken beyond the Wellesley Street dividing line. A block of buildings including the Anchor Hotel, covered what was destined to become a stormilvdebated area.