Local History and Blogs
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Gordon Goneburger?
- Eye of the Fish
- It is deeply sad and rather ironic that the day that the submissions for the Gordon Wilson Housing Scholarship close wth NZIA, the Minister of...
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed by feedreader
- Tagged as:
- gordon-wilson-flats
Gordon Wilson Flats, Maurice Terrace, Aro Valley, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Albemarle rises again
- Eye of the Fish
- It has been a long time coming, and at times I doubted that it would ever happen, but the scaffolding is down at last and...
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed by feedreader
- Tagged as:
- heritage-buildings
Albemarle Building, Ghuznee Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Last-ditch bid to save fantastic Modernist building
- Eye of the Fish
- A group fighting to keep the Gordon Wilson Flats from being demolished, despite the building having sat empty for years, has come up with a...
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed by feedreader
- Tagged as:
- heritage-buildings
Gordon Wilson Flats, Maurice Terrace, Aro Valley, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Is a Prime Minster Entitled to a Nice House?
- Eye of the Fish
- There’s been a lot about this house in the news recently – both the paper kind of news, and the TV kind of news. May as well get my news from proper news sources while they exist, seeing as it sounds like soon nothing is going to exist in the news world. What will we do when 3News and OneNews are ditched, and Stuff has gone bust again? Its hard enough to even buy a paper these days, as increasingly nowhere sells them. What do we do in the future – just make up our own news as we go? Seems to be working fine for some people! Anyway, THIS is the house in question:
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed by feedreader
- Tagged as:
- heritage-buildings
- thorndon
Premier House, 260, Tinakori Road, Paekākā, Thorndon, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Toomath’s Building
- Eye of the Fish
- Farewell to the Toomath’s Buildings then. Designed by architect William Crichton, completed by 1901. Survived years of neglect – did not survive a group of...
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed by feedreader
- Tagged as:
- toomaths-building
Toomath’s Buildings, Ghuznee Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Leslie Adkin’s Excursion to Kāpiti Island
- Te Papa's blog
- Leslie Adkin (1888–1964) was a farmer by profession, based in Levin.
- Accepted from Te Papa blog feed by tonytw1
- Tagged as:
- local-history
Kapiti Island, Kāpiti Coast District, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Do we really need to heritage list any more of central Wellington?
- Talk Wellington
- Heritage NZ are currently consulting on Category 1-listing the Hannah Playhouse. Some bigwigs support it but guest poster Peter encourages us to oppose it in the consultation – open til 3 March Much criticism of heritage listing modern buildings, particularly those of this architectural style, Brutalism, is rooted in architectural snobbery. This post is not about...
- Accepted from Talk Wellington posts by feedreader
- Tagged as:
- consultation
- heritage-buildings
Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Dixon Street flats
- Eye of the Fish
- But the big news this week has to be the somewhat silly news that the Dixon Street flats are being emptied out and there is not a clear story of what happens to the building next. This is not a sob storey like the Gordon Wilson Flats just around the corner – well, at least, it hasn’t started off the same.
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed by tonytw1
- Tagged as:
- earthquake-strengthening
- heritage-buildings
Dixon Street Flats, 134, Dixon Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Have a Gay Day! The 60th anniversary of Wellington’s Dorian Society
- Te Papa's blog
- Sixty years ago, on 27 May 1962, a group of sixteen men met at a house on The Terrace in central Wellington to discuss forming what would become New Zealand’s first documented homosexual organisation – the Dorian Society. Gareth Watkins shares more of the story of some of the peopleRead more
- Accepted from Te Papa blog feed by tonytw1
- Tagged as:
- lgbt
- local-history
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Adelaide Hotel
- Eye of the Fish
- It’s seldom that projects get publicly notified these days – the developers usually have it their own way with everything being done behind closed doors. You have to do something seriously different to raise the ire of the Planning Department enough that they feel they have no option but to make it known to the public. The Adelaide Hotel is one such scheme.
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed by tonytw1
- Tagged as:
- consultation
- heritage-buildings
Adelaide Hotel (former), Drummond Street, Newtown, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Haining’s Historic Heritage
- Eye of the Fish
- It may not seem much like it now, but the Haining St / Frederick St area is brimming full of remnants of an interesting characterful heritage past.
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed by tonytw1
- Tagged as:
- heritage-buildings
Haining Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Station to Station
- Eye of the Fish
- Wellington’s main (only?) central Railway Station has been getting a lot of press recently, mostly over the intransigence of the Heritage NZ lobby who are, to be honest, being silly over the heritage of this building. They’ve only just today approved the installation of a pedestrian ramp out the front doors – the disabled have been forced to use the side door for the last several decades. They’re sitting on the approval of installation of the Snapper ticketing terminals because they don’t like the colour. KiwiRail: do it anyway. It needs to be a living piece of heritage, adapting and changing to the times – not preserved in aspic (whatever aspic is).
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed by tonytw1
- Tagged as:
- heritage-buildings
- trains
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St Gerard
- Eye of the Fish
- Monasteries have always been freeloaders on society – for the last 2000 years or more.
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed by tonytw1
- Tagged as:
- heritage-buildings
- mount-victoria
Mt. Victoria, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Listing buildings
- Eye of the Fish
- Not sure if you realise this yet, but the proverbial cat has just been thrown amongst the proverbial pigeons. Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (what used to be called the Historic Places Trust) has just announced three new grade 1 heritage listings in Wellington: Trades Hall, Wellington Central Library, and a combined Gordon Wilson and McLean flats as well.
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed by tonytw1
- Tagged as:
- central-library-closure
- heritage-buildings
Wellington Central Library, Civic Square, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Dunajtschik demolition a done deal?
- Eye of the Fish
- News just in via the Stuff website that Mark Dunajtschik has won his appeal in the High Court against the Environment Court. But it does not mean that Mr D has the right to go out and demolish the building straight away – instead, a rehearing has been ordered. This legal stuff is exhausting, and expensive. With the amount that Mr D has spent on the legal costs so far, you might think that he could quite easily have just strengthened the building instead.
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed
- Tagged as:
- harcourts-building
- heritage-buildings
Grey Street, Wellington Central, Wellington, 6012, New Zealand/Aotearoa (OpenStreetMap)
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Halfway House
- Eye of the Fish
- I’m quite interested in New Zealand’s old architecture, particularly those old colonial buildings that we haven’t preserved much of, but can still be found. So I went to Glenside, near Tawa to see an old colonial house. Apparently the suburb of Glenside used to be called ‘Halfway’ back in the day because it was located [...]
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed
- Tagged as:
- tawa
- heritage-buildings
Middleton Road, Grenada Village, Glenside, Wellington, 6037, New Zealand/Aotearoa
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More Dunajtschik
- Eye of the Fish
- Regarding the old Temperance and General Building on Lambton Quay – known to next to no-one as the Harcourts building. Submissions on it’s proposed demolition are due in a week – by the end of the month. It is a crunch point for Wellingtonians – should a building owner be allowed to demolish their building [...]
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed
- Tagged as:
- heritage-buildings
- consultation
- harcourts-building
Grey Street, Wellington Central, Wellington, Wellington Region, 6012, New Zealand
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Dunajtschik demolition
- Eye of the Fish
- So the time has come at last: the first of a presumed wave of proposals to demolish perfectly good buildings in Wellington. Christchurch has had to put up with a swathe of demolition over the last couple of years, and they are getting so good at destroying everything down there, that they have forgotten that it is not compulsory. Cranmer Courts is their city’s latest disgrace – the Harcourts building is ours.
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed
- Tagged as:
- heritage-buildings
- harcourts-building
Grey Street, Wellington Central, Wellington, Wellington Region, 6011, New Zealand
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National War Memorial “Earthquake-prone”: Demolition?
- Eye of the Fish
- In some pretty shocking news that has just been leaked out of the new super-ministry this morning, the National War Memorial in Buckle St has been declared to be an earthquake prone building. The building, completed in 1932, has a concrete frame, but the weight of the heavy bronze bells in the Carillon is thought [...]
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed
- Tagged as:
- heritage-buildings
- mount-cook
- earthquake-strengthening
41 Buckle Street
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Carmen – ahead of her time
- Te Papa's blog
- Carmen Rupe (1936-2011), a New Zealand transgendered entrepreneur, entertainer, and role model, passed away in Sydney this morning.
- Accepted from Te Papa blog feed
- Tagged as:
- local-history
- lgbt
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Cuba Cuticle
- Eye of the Fish
- Recently, while we were talking about the curious case of the Demolition Order placed on the little green Dry Cleaners in Cuba St, I took a visit up to Cuba (St) to take a photo and found something rather odd.
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed
- Tagged as:
- wellywood-sign
- cuba-street
- heritage-buildings
Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Whither Cuba?
- Eye of the Fish
- Gosh – that was a surprise! Our venerated local broadsheet, el Domino Postale, appears to have gone and written an excellent, thoughtful article on what we need to do with Cuba St. Have they got a new reporter perhaps, one who is actually interested in matters more important than cute doggies or cats stuck up trees? There is hope, at least – keep an eye out on Nikki McDonald. The article raises some serious points, which I think that we have also raised before – what to do with a street whose charm lies in it’s eclectic collection of semi derelict buildings?
- Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed
- Tagged as:
- heritage-buildings
- cuba-street
Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Heritage Questions
- Eye of the Fish
- If you’ve been trying to get hold of your Structural Engineer this week in Wellington, you’ll probably have noticed they’re not returning calls.
- Submitted by tonytw1
- Tagged as:
- heritage-buildings
- earthquake-strengthening
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And you thought we were joking about the Octopus threat?
- The Wellingtonista
- Earlier this month we read about an octopus off the South Coast that mugged an innocent diver and took his valuable new camera. The news flashed around the world and everyone had a bit of a chuckle at the diver's expense. Not so fast, laughing boys (and girls). It turns out that this is but the latest episode in a long history of criminal behaviour by the city's cephalopod citizenry.
- Tagged as:
- cephalopods
- local-history
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A teatowel coffee guide to Wellington
- The Wellingtonista
- NZ History have recently added an amazing tea towel, thought to be from the mid-1960s, listing the coffee houses of Wellington.
- Tagged as:
- local-history
- coffee
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A Bit Of Love for an Old Organ
- The Wellingtonista
- The Wellington Town Hall is rated amongst the top ten in the world for acoustics, and this was a significant argument in the 1970s and 80s when the demolition of the Town Hall became a possibility.
- Tagged as:
- heritage-buildings
- music
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Wellington reclamation animation
- The Wellingtonista
- From the 'Reclamation of Wellington Harbour' Wikipedia article, here's an animation by Matt Lane that shows the various stages of the city's expansion seawards over the last century and a half.
- Tagged as:
- local-history
- waterfront
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Grand Designs
- Eye of the Fish
- Watching an episode of Grand Designs recently, while on holiday, made me thankful that we don’t have such a high and idiotic level of bureaucracy as they do in England: but then again, nor do we have an architectural presenter with the charisma and sardonic tongue of Kevin McCloud. In this programme, an architect called Francis Shaw was attempting to restore a castle in Skipton, in Yorkshire. Hi
- Tagged as:
- heritage-buildings
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The Old Shebang of Cuba Street
- The Wellingtonista
- The National Library has joined the Flickr Commons project, whacking up many of their photos on Flickr. At the moment, there's not much from Wellington, but we're hoping that will change as more are uploaded. One particular Wellington delight, however, is a set of photos of a ramshackle house on Cuba Street called the Old Shebang (shebang in this instance means dwelling). And as well as that, Goo
- Tagged as:
- cuba-street
- local-history
Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Holy Smoke!
- The Wellingtonista
- The historic St Peters church, on the corner of Willis & Ghuznee St, is currently on fire. There are seven fire appliances and one ambulance attending the fire, and just now they seem to have stopped the smoke belching out of the doors and windows. More updates & photos as they come to hand... read more
- Tagged as:
- emergency-services
- heritage-buildings
- religious-groups
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