Dismantled Shop And its Close Links With Early Wanganui

Wanganui Chronicle, 11 May 1948, Page 4

Dismantled Shop And its Close Links With Early Wanganui

Few Wanganui people who, in recent weeks, dismissed with a casual ,glan£e the demolition of an old, wea-ther-beaten and dilapidated building on the corner of Ridgway and Wicksteed Streets realised that yet another link with the early days of old Wanganui was being severed.’ Occupied for the last 15 years byMr. W. S. McCrorie, the building, with its two-storey wooden facade fronting Ridgway Street, and single-storey brick premises at the rear, had for nearly 70 years been a recognised shop for plumbers. The City Council’s decision to have the building pulled down to improve visibility for motorists approaching the corner belatedly carries into effect a court case and agitation decades old. A Mr. Leslie built the shop in 1879 on what is actually the Queen's Park reserve, and there carried on the trade of a tinsmith. He was followed by Mr. J. H. Keesing, in a plumbing partnership. Shortly after the turn of the century. when a very well known Wanganui plumber, Jimmy Graham, succeeded to the tenancy, the shop became a bone of contention, for its very position would prevent the widening of Drew’s Avenue. In 1908 it became the subject of a Supreme Court case, and the late Mr. Treadwell, appearing for Graham, gave Sir Robert Sout, who was on the Bench, an assurance that his client would quit the premises in six months.

While its fate was still being argued, another chapter was written inlo the shop's history. Graham gave way to a Mr. Harding, who set up a photographer’s business in the front, while his daughter held dancing classes in the back section of the building. One incident ensured their being remembered. Seized either by a desire to have its photo taken, or the urged to trip the light fantastic, or both, a bullock broke away from a herd near the shop one day and barged through the display window and right to the back of the place. A motor mechanic, Harry Jennings, was next to set up business there but by 1920 Jack Graham had moved into his father’s old establishment to continue the plumbing tradition. When the late Mr. Hope Gibbons became Mayor in 1924, he urged that tiie place, then temporarily empty, be pulled down in deference to the Hurst—Seeger plan for a civic centre, based on the Sarjoant Gallery. This was a long-term scheme, witli special aims for an improved layout of the area at the rear of Avenue properties between the Civic centre and Wicksteed Place. The building would have been in the way and when th* vigorous campaigning of the late John Morgan was supported by the agitation of civic leaders, its destruction appeared imminent. But. again the building survived, while Wanganui’s sole attempt at town planning fell dormant. Jack Graham sold out to the Couchman brothers, but it was not long before the latter had their name added to the ever lengthening list of those who moved out. The shop stood empty for a couple of years and then Mi*. McCrorie took over in 1933 to be. as events have proved, the last lessee. Despite its age, much of the timber taken from the structure is in good condition.