Aickin's Pharmacy Queen St - Edward Bartley

Retailers provided a good proportion of Edward Bartley’s early work.
One early trend setting example was a design in 1879 for Graves Aickin, the pharmacist and entrepreneur.

Aickin came to Auckland via San Francisco. He arrived in 1863 already a qualified pharmacist. Within a couple of years he set up business in Karangahape Road.

Like many others Graves Aickin joined in the gold rush to Thames in 1870. He may have met with more success than the majority because he moved bigger premises in Queen St shortly after his return.
It is about this time that he began discussions with Edward Bartley about a possible expansion.

Edward’s cousin Julia was related to James Ferneyhough who owned a property on Queen St, near Vulcan Lane. Part of the site was leased to a hairdressers. Aickin negotiated to take the remainder for his pharmaceutical business.

Auckland Evening Star 19 April 1879

Edward Bartley trained as a cabinetmaker. He loved fine work in beautiful timber. After twenty years of no frills construction he now had the chance to share his passion for good cabinet work.
Here was his opportunity to design a spectacular retail experience.
Money was no object for Mr Aickin – he wanted the best.

Auckland Weekly News 4 June 1881

This two storey building, constructed on a site opposite the Bank of New Zealand in Queen St, had a highly ornamental front elevation. That alone was impressive for the times. Lower Queen St was not a sophisticated area in the 1870’s.
What sent the commentators into raptures was the interior. This was retail such as Auckland had never seen.
We can imagine the conversation at Mungo’s Café next door, discussing the sensory experience of visiting for Aickin’s new premises for the first time.

Edward had, in his brother in law John Harvey, a talented craftsman. Harvey was employed to fit out the interior in cedar and mahogany. Bespoke cabinets were designed for the vast miscellany of requisites and drugs stocked by a manufacturing pharmacist. These were finished with hand carving and mouldings on their upper portion.
Other cabinets were sourced and imported from England.
Showcases for retail items were ranged along the whole of the south wall of the shop space.

A self- acting fountain on a marble- topped case threw out jets of perfumed water. This luxurious ambience was completed by an ornate dispensing counter to the rear of the premises. Imagine coming in off poorly drained, unsealed Queen St to that environment.

Edward specified some state of the art technology to streamline the daily transactions.
Speaking tubes were installed in a similar way to modern intercom systems. Some connected the dispensary to the surgeons consulting rooms on the level above. Others allowed communication with the bottlers and storerooms on the lower level.
There was no change from £1000 for the interior fittings alone. Together Mr Aickin and Edward had set the standard for other retailers to match.

It is our loss that Aickin’s pharmacy was faced over many years ago. There is, however, a continuation of high end retailing in that part of Queen St. We have Mr Aickin to thank for pioneering smart shopping in what was once a rather ‘down market’ part of central Auckland.

MacDonald's Queen St - the former ASB Bank designed by Edward Bartley

McDonald's 260 Queen St Auckland, the former ASB. Image BFA 2004

Edward Bartley is often described as the first Architect to the Auckland Savings Bank. This honour rightly belongs to Frederick Jones, the successful competitor for the design of the first ASB building in Queen St, or to Reader Wood who took over as architect for that project in 1860.

Edward's association with Auckland Savings Bank was, however, a long lived association which also began with an architectural competition. 

Today we look at the Bank's 'flagship' building on Queen St, Auckland, completed in 1882.

In 1881 the Bank invited architects to enter designs for a new building to be erected on their Queen St site. Edward and six others entered anonymous designs in the competition. The Trustees were reported to be practically unanimous in their preference for Utile Dulci – the Bartley design.[i]Building was scheduled to get underway by the end of 1881 to erect the three-storey building. 

former ASB Queen St Auckland. Image BFA 2003

The style of the architecture was described at the time as light Italian. Today Italianate Victorian would be more apt. 

The front elevation was to be adorned with four panels on the lower storey – two each for the Horns of Plenty and one each for the figures of Commerce and Manufacture.

The base of the front elevation, four feet in height, was originally to be of blue stone surmounted by a polished Aberdeen granite string- course of Greek pattern and the remainder of the front in Hobart stone. 

The decision was finally made to use Oamaru stone, which was the cheapest proven stone available, with imported material for the columns. 

 The entrance was designed to be imposing. The main doors, flanked by windows, led into  a vestibule nine by fourteen feet. The flooring for this area and the public space was in decorated in Minton encaustic tile.

A massive staircase to the first floor rose from the left-hand side, with the manager’s room dominating on the right. 

The vestibule was divided from the banking offices by double action swing doors with Corinthian columns, frieze and entablature. 

The banking counter was twenty-nine feet long with all the interior fittings of polished cedar. Upstairs was the accommodation for the manager, in the form of a four- bedroom apartment, as was traditional at this time. 

Access to the service areas on the first floor was level with Lorne St at the rear. 

Ventilation for the whole building was provided by means of perforations in the cornice of the banking room, the air being carried by tubes to the roof extractor fan. 

The building still stands, at 260 Queen St, being used as a bank until 1968.

Listed Category 1 with NZ Historic Places Trust, it is well worth a visit, as some original features remain intact. 

See http://ascarchitects.co.nz/projects/interiors/mcdonalds-260-queen-street for images of recent upgrade to facilities and preservation work.

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[i] Auckland Weekly News 13 August 1881 page 15 col.4

[ii] New Zealand Herald 16 September 1881 page 5 col.1

See also: NZH 6 Aug 1881 p4 col 7;11 May 1882 p 6, col 2 & 3; 12 May 1882 p 4 col 7; 8 May 1884 p5 col 2; 9 May 1884 p4 col 7 & p 5 col 1 & 2; AES 12 May 1882 p 2 col 6 for laying of the foundation stone
Historic Places Trust Magazine Nov 1988

Edward Bartley's Alterations to the original South British Building

Image from Bartley Archive Postcard collection

The building Aucklanders now know as the Blackett's building was once the original offices of South British Insurance. The company was a New Zealand firm founded in 1872 by a group of influential colonists. Their business was principally fire and marine insurance.

NZ Herald 10 October 1910

This corner of Queen and Shortland St housed the company until the late 1920's, when an adjacent site was taken for the construction of state of the art offices on the corner of Shortland St and High St.

Richard Keals designed the first offices for erection in 1879. The Italianate design was complemented by a statue of Britannia on the roof line which became an Auckland land mark.

Just before the World War Edward Bartley's firm was asked to take charge of alterations and modernising.

NZ Herald 16 July 1910

A third storey was added and the footprint widened to take in the frontage previously part of Woolam's pharmaceuticals. 

Auckland Star 14 July 1910

NZ Herald 30 May 1911

The entranceway was improved and enhanced by a grand stairway, with modern lifts for the use of the public.

NZ Herald 7 March 1911 p7 col 1

 Hand held Minimax fire extinguishers were installed throughout.

NZ Herald 6 May 1911

NZ Herald 6 Novermber 1911

The 1929 headquarters was designed by Grierson, Aimer & Draffin. M Keith Draffin had worked with Edward Bartley up until the latter's death in 1919. The design is a feast of deco detail in the Chicago style

Image courtesy urbanexplorerflickr

Refer also: NZ Building Progress 1 August 1910, 1 November 1912 
HZ Historic Places Trust Category 1 http://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/121former South British; Category 1 Blackett's building http://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/4483
Vennel, C.W Risks and rewards, a policy of enterprise 1872-1972 Wilson and Horton Auckland 1972

New Heritage Rating in Lower Queen St Auckland - Hannken Drapery

There was heritage news of interest to Bartley/Hannken descendants this week. The former Graham and Co building at 104-106 Queen St, Auckland has been given a Category 1 rating.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/auckland-city-harbour-news/10358095/Significance-of-historic-building-recognised

Frederick HANNKEN father of Edward Bartley’s wife Elizabeth owned a drapery store in this part of Queen St from 1850. Although the Hannken’s premises predates the Graham building and is now destroyed, this block of Queen St features strongly in family reminiscences.

Philip Hannken (1858-1940) wrote his reminiscences in 1935. He chose to take his readers on a walk around his childhood surroundings:[ii]

My parents had a drapery shop in Queen St…let us stroll up the street and see who are our neighbours. Next door is Connel and Riding’s auction rooms and above that Mrs Pollock’s butcher shop…There was also a large butchery in this block at one time – Dornwell’s…Above Dornwell’s was a small barber shop. The tonsorial artists was known as the Mt Eden barber; it was said if they were short of a good barber in Mt Eden Gaol the police would run him in and so he received the above name, which he in no way resented, but when he got his freedom he was often heard complaining of the state of the tools of his trade as he found them at his country residence….My grandmother [Eliza NICOLLE then RAMPLING] had a grocery shop just around the corner in Wyndham St.

A young Philip Hannken. Image from the Steven Album, BFA

The Hannken family had lived previously in the Coromandel, having arrived in the Bay of Islands in 1839. They were all familiar with the language, customs and requirements of their customers.

Elizabeth Hannken, later Bartley, recalled:

After a few years in Auckland Father opened a business in Queen Street on a portion of the site now occupied by the Bank of New Zealand, and as the nature of his business brought us in close touch with the Maoris, we all became good native scholars, which added greatly to the success of the business.

Father used to employ many of the soldier’s wives sewing and making gowns for the Maori women and as the soldier’s pay was very small, the women were glad of the opportunity of earning a little, although they only received sixpence per gown for their labour.[i]

Elizabeth Hannken, wife of Edward Bartley. Image BFA

Auckland’s smart retail precinct had developed along the eastern side of the town, largely due to the geographical features. Fred Hannken chose his western site with an eye to developing his existing business contacts and exploiting his former profession of tailor at the same time.

 Like his mother in law around the corner in Wyndham St, Fred Hannken was able to take advantage of the close proximity to the native and settler customers coming from the wharf nearby. He also had a developing market from the new housing precincts appearing on Auckland’s western side.

The site of Graham and Co recently listed has then a much longer association with drapery and Manchester than the 1860’s.

One of the disadvantages of this part of Queen St was that it was on the ‘wrong side’ of the Ligar Canal. This was the Horutu Creek, contained by a culvert, which ran down Queen St to the harbour. By 1850 when the Hannken Drapery opened that culvert was boarded over. It was still used as a sewer and would continue to be so for many years, constituting a serious nuisance to public health.

Philip Hannken fell into that creek as a toddler, so the state of the planks covering the menace can be imagined.

At the time we speak of this lower part of Queen St was a rough and ready thoroughfare. Like most of the roads it had no seal. The quagmire in winter made both trade and travel challenging. Joe Hannken records a family recollection: a bundle of spades that was dropped in the muddy street while being unloaded from a cart outside the Hannken shop, which was not discovered until many years later when the road was being dug up for relaying.[iii]

Moving from the Hannken store in the opposite direction, the nearest neighbour was the Partington Store. This premises was owned by the same firm which owned the landmark windmill on the Auckland sky line. Philip Hannken recalled:

 we children had every reason to remember that store for we were often regaled in there with a biscuit as large as a cheese plate and well covered with either currants or dark brown sugar. Next to Partington’s and on the corner of West Queen St [now Swanson St] stood Gundry’s chemist shop. Going up West Queen St we find Christopher’s grocery store, their yard forming the back boundary to our place.

The 1860s brought a vast change to the character of Auckland. The population increased significantly and became characterised by military presence. This militarisation, along with the wider regional conflicts, adversely affected the Hannken’s business interests.

In 1865 construction began on the BNZ building next door to their drapery. The bank was first erected four bays wide. Later extensions resulted in the demolishing of the wooden structures adjacent, one of which was the Hannken premises. In 1866, due in part to that construction,  the family business moved to northern Shortland St.[iv]

This photo can probably be dated to the 1870's.  It shows the former Hannken drapery in the centre dwarfed by its new neighbour, the Bank of New Zealand.  Photo donated by Hannken family, BFA

New register information for 104-106 Queen St can be found here: http://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/95

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[i] Reminiscences of Elizabeth Bartley manuscript on file BFA

[ii] Reminiscences of Auckland 1858-1880, Philip F Hannken

[iii] http://www.geocities.com/hannkennz

[iv] Mitchell & Seffern Directory of Auckland 1866-67

Images of Early Auckland from the Post Card Collection

I apologise for the long absence. Mother passed away last Sunday and it is only now I am able to pick up again on the writing and research. We have been celebrating her life with family and friends. It is noteworthy how often conversation at these gatherings turns to more remote forebears, and how much interest there is in our historical relationships as a community of descendants. I really enjoy sharing the Bartley Archive materials with a wider audience and at present I am following my inclination to begin with the Channel Islands link but please let me know if there are particular individuals or families you would like to read about in these posts.
Today we take a break from Jersey to answer a request made for some of our photographs of early Auckland, New Zealand. Most of these are undated I'm sorry to say, but I hope you enjoy this selection from our postcard collection.

The Cricket ground Auckland Domain.

Albert Park with central suburbs in the background

The Art Gallery (centre) in its original setting

The long vista down Queen St

A view from the Lower Queen St end

Twin views of Queen St Auckland from street level

Transition time- several modes of transport in evidence

This Supreme Court building was under construction around the time Bartley's were establishing themselves in Auckland

Some images of the North Shore, Auckland:

Clue: there is a family connection to this Ferry Building on Devonport Wharf

A view across Devonport toward St Heliers, Auckland

Called simply The Lake by most residents on the North Shore at this time.