Sunday, January 24, 2010

Old South British Insurance building, Shortland Street


 The name has faded on all bar a couple of plaques and initials on the window frosting ...

 

For an office building, especially one for an insurance company from last century, this has a lot of truly beautiful features in its architecture. Then again, according to Archives New Zealand (link has a 1950s photo of the building) it was built during the Art Deco period, 1928/1929. It shows.




 
 


 
 




 

 

I love the lamps.

 

6 comments:

  1. yes so do I! that's one thing I love about Akld city, all the old buildings :-)

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  2. Cool, thanks, folk. Always good to know I'm not the only one with eyes drifting upward to the walls! :-)

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  3. As a former Junior Clerk in the South British Insurance Head Office on the 7th floor of the building, I worked there between 1958-1960. It had a fine interior as well, beautifully maintained with two superb mahogany-lined elevators & uniformed operators. The panelled Board Room on the 7th floor was straight out of the Art Deco era. Those walls enclose many memories.

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  4. Beautiful! I used to work there as a ledger keeper typist in mid 70's. I have good memories of the place.

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