EARLY CITY LINK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 193, 17 August 1939, Page 6

EARLY CITY LINK.

OLD BUSINESS BLOCK.

BUILT EIGHTY YEARS AGO.

SCHEME TO COST £25,000.

One of the oldest business blocks in Queen Street will be demolished next month to make way for a new fourstorey building at the corner of Queen and Wellesley Streets. The scheme will remove what was in the early 'sixties the most modern commercial building in Auckland.

At that time, the old Ligar Canal flowed from the vicinity of the present foot of Wakefield Street across the main thoroughfare, where the stream was spanned by a small bridge, and turned whefe Elliott Street is now to flow back to Queen Street. The course was then direct to the waterfront. Early photographs show, both above and below the building, large areas of vacant land, the only other landmark on the elopes leading up to the windmill, near Symonds Street, being the Wesleyan College, which is to-day the Salvation Army's People's Palace, in Upper Queen Street.

When renovations were carried out in recent years by Messrs. Geo. J. Browne, Limited, the present owners of the building, who are undertaking the new scheme, a well was discovered at the •ear of the premises, with access by a right of way from Lome Street. There was also formerly a right of way from Wellesley Street, but this no longer exists. • J... $?■

The new building, which is expected to cost between £20,000 and £30,000, according to the number Of storeys included in the first portion of the scheme, will be on a site with 71ft frontage to Wellesley Street and 57ft to Queen Street. Provision will be made in the foundation and frame for an additional two storeys to be added later, making six in all. On the ground floor will be shops, which It Is expected will be ready for occupation by Christmas, and on the Wellesley Street front will be a spacious entrance, leading to a staircase and lift. A special feature of the design will be the treatment of the entrance vestibule and stairs, which will be finished in birch veneer and decorated glass, with aluminium around the show windows and on the stairs. In design the new block should be a worthy addition to the architecture cf the city. The architect is Mr. J. O. Owen.