ANCIENI AND MODERN

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 288, 5 September 1928, Page 12

ANCIENI AND MODERN

WELLINGTONS BUILDING EVOLUTION “BACK TO THE BEACH" IN BOND STREET Wellington moves apace. Probably no other period in her building history has seen such a drast change tn city architecture as the hist live years. Buildings which, only few years ttgo. were considered tall, stately structures have been dwarfed by numbers ol seven and eight-story buildings winch have leapt into the ait to the limit prescribed by the building by-laws-notably the Hope Gibbons Building, tn Dixon'Street: the Civic Chambers (at the corner of Cuba and M tikefield Streets) : the Gilchrist Building, at the corner of Lower Taranaki and Wake field Streets (now approaching completion): the C. Griffith’s Building, in Courtenay Place: the T. and G. and AMP structures: the new Medical Chambers, on Wellington Terrace: the ■Evening Bost" building, in Minis Street: the N.Z. Express’Company s tall building in Victoria Street, and the new “Dominion” building, the great seven-story bulk of Rich extends from Bond Street to Wakefield Street. The illustration at the toot of this pa-'e gives a rather striking example of Three generations of building. Prob ablv one generation may be said to bi missing—th two-story wooden build in.- of the ’seventies and eighties. Still this glimpse of an aged corrugated iron shack, part of which was one ot the buildings which stood beside the waters of the harbour, is interesting, as markin" the contrast between the old and the new. The ancient tin shed is believed to have been built by Mr. .1. Thirkell, formerly a well-known name on the Wellington waterfront. He was a shipwright and boat-builder, and the back wooden wall, half obscured by badly rusted corrugated iron sheathing, discloses the name—“.l. Thirkell, Shipwright and Boat Builder,’ and a tew feet below the surface of the ground the remains of a small boat-slip leading into the shed have been discovered. As Mr. Thirkell plied his trade back in the ’sixties, this is a real bit ot old Wellington in contradistinction to the mountain of masonry embodied m the “Dominion” building, the side and Bond Street frontage of which dominate the picture. . Not all the, present, shed was of Thirkell origin. Tlie old boat shed was taken over by the late firm ol Crease and Son. jam and pickle manufacturers, who used it for years as a packing room, and who gave it a brick facade in a somewhat vain effort to lend the ruin a dignity not really inherent. J his front was only demolished the other day, when the alignment of the new Bond Street (formerly Old Cust ?m‘ hcuse Street) was put m order. At ei the building was jettisoned bj Crease and Son. it remained vacant toy a time, and later became the office ot a wellknown bookmaker. Now and for some four years past, it has been Hie blaiksmith’s shop of Mr. C. AV. Ta hot, the ciink of whose hammer on the anvil mav still be heard in any one ot the five hundred offices that have piled up round the old smithy. •