genre books

1 1 DUNEDIN SWAREHOUSE PRECINCTA lexander Trapeznik2 Published 2014 genre BooksAn imprint of Pluto Networks Ltd44 Ann Street, Roslyn, Dunedin 978-0-473-25744-6 Design & layout: Chris BrickellPhotography: Gerard O Brien & Chris BrickellResearch: Joanne Galer & Scott CampbellResearch assistance & editing: Austin GeeText set in Sabon and Museo Sansgenre books3 Contents Introduction: heritage in place 61. Donald Reid & Co 372. National Mortgage & Agency Co 51 Union Steamship Co head office 643.

2 New Zealand Loan & Mercantile Agency 67 Dalgety & Co warehouse 724. Murray Roberts & Co 73 Booth, Macdonald & Co 795. Wright, Stephenson & Co 816. The Agricultural and Brydone halls 86AH & AW Reed building 937. A collection of wool and grain stores 95 Queens Gardens neoclassicism 1098.

3 Evening Star building 1119. Sargood, Son & Ewen Bing, Harris & Co 11610. Brown, Ewing & Co Ross & Glendining 124 The clothing industry 132 Click on the chapter title to go straight to the relevant Kempthorne, Prosser & Co 13412. Reid & Gray Cossens & Black Shacklock 13813. Hallenstein Bros Ahlfeld Bros 146 Imperial Buildings 15114.

4 Stavely s Bond 15315. Sew Hoy 15916. D Benjamin & Co 164 Otago Daily Times building 16617. Some ghost stories 16718. Conclusion 175 Map: Dunedin s warehouse precinct 179 Image credits 182 Bibliography 184 Acknowledgements 1875 COVER IMAGE: Vogel Street was laid out on leasehold Harbour Board land created by the phase of harbour reclamation that began in 1879.

5 Its northern end developed rapidly and remains one of the most built-up parts of the precinct. Many of the fa ades were modernised in the mid-twentieth century, but the original doors and windows were usually retained. Only two of the buildings shown here do not also have a fa ade to Cumberland Street. From left to right can be seen Queens Gardens House, formerly the offices of the Perpetual Trustees Estate & Agency Co, designed in 1880-2 by John Burnside; next the offices of the coal merchants Ogilvie & Co, a small building no deeper than its fa ade is wide (it backed onto an internal courtyard formed by the Cumberland Street block of the Terminus (later the Gresham) Hotel; then comes WH Dunning s warehouse extension of 1929 for the ironmongers Paterson Hogg, Howison, Nicol & Co s building of 1881 2 by Robert Forrest; the Milne Bremner building, built for Hogg, Howison in 1887 8 also by Forrest.)

6 And Vogel House of 1886, by RA Lawson. Across Water Street, the third NMA head office, built for the USSCo in 1883 by David Ross; Keith Ramsay and Henry Guthrie s offices of 1880 1, also by Lawson (like Ogilvie & Co, it has no Cumberland Street frontage); the USSCo store (later the South Island Dairy Association s store); and, nearest the camera, the northern end of Donald Reid s large warehouse of 1881. Most commercial buildings have been colourfully painted since the late 1980s. For most of their existence they displayed their natural rendered finish, stone or S ephemera are today s treasures. Relics of the past once consigned to eclectic local museums and antique shops now can be found throughout the entire country in a wide range of contexts.

7 We take solace from the past and its buildings, relics and landscapes. They provide us with comfort and a source of collective identity in a globalized internet-linked world where points of reference are sometimes s warehouse district is a newly rediscovered treasure. Spanning the few blocks stretching from the harbour-side to Princes Street, from Queens Gardens to the Oval, for many years this area slipped out of the public eye. The grid-pattern street layout contains a dense mixture of commercial and industrial buildings, typically between two and four storeys high. Many have a decorative fa ade to the street and plain brick or masonry walls facing their neighbours.

8 Some became derelict, others home to a variety of uses. A few have been demolished to create car parks. Recently, many of the buildings have become the subject of renewed enthusiasm, being strengthened, refurbished, repainted and valued once again. The city council promotes the adaptive re-use of former commercial buildings and improvements to the streetscape. There are clear signs of a new interest in the precinct among the public in the form of walking tours and articles in the press. Alongside this new enthusiasm lies an interest in the history of these structures. They were not just warehouses, but also head offices, stores, shops and manufacturing plants.

9 There is diversity here as well as unity: Introduction: heritage in Place7similarities and differences can be seen in function, scale and architectural style. The precinct was the commercial heart of the city in the period when Dunedin was the financial and manufacturing capital of New , markers, buildings, plaques and memorials play an impor-tant function in providing social cohesion. Their shared stories help individ-uals within a society connect with each other and provide a shared commu-nity heritage . At a national level, collective identity incorporates cultural values that are commonly agreed upon. With this sort of collective sense of identity we can speak of our heritage or national heritage .

10 Yet even such broad meanings of heritage are constantly being redefined and reshaped. A changing population base brings with it national introspection and contin-ual self-evaluation. Migration from Europe and Asia and the rise of Maori culture have altered perceptions of national heritage . A range of groups and communities are now asserting their identity within a national framework that has traditionally focussed on a British the New Zealand environment, British and Irish names and look-alike English or Scottish landscapes abound, along with sometimes unwisely imported flora and fauna. While domestic architecture followed Australian THIS UNION STEAM SHIP COMPANY building in Water Street was repainted in mid-2013 while, over the other side of the railway line on the corner of Thomas Burns and Fryatt Streets, the NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency building awaits a new of British and American designs, New Zealand s early colonial public buildings often consciously followed English or Scottish styles: Gothic revival and Scots baronial, but also neoclassical.