Friday, May 20, 2011

When they recruited at Victoria Street

Image by permission of Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries, ref 4-794.  
Photographer James D Richardson

Photos like this one fascinate me. Apart from the fact that Auckland in the 1870s-1880s would have been a dusty, dirty and smelly place to be, I still can't help wishing it was possible to step into the image, and see what it actually looked like; in the full-colour of the day.

This is Victoria Street West, looking towards what is now Albert Park, but at the time (late 1870s to very early 1880s). At the right, the Theatre Royal (the London Loan office one of the tenants). On the other side of Queen Street, Williamson's American Bowling Saloon. Intriguingly tucked between those two buildings on the skyline, what appears to have been the last of the Albert Barracks, used by both the constabulary and the grammar school when the Imperial troops finally pulled out in the early 1870s. To the left, on the skyline, possibly the remains of the barracks magazine buildings, and also possibly part of the now vanished (aside from one bit) barracks wall.

Victoria Street has always been a wide thoroughfare, from long before the time of the motor car. Things were parked in the middle of the street -- in this case, delivery and passenger carts.


Image by permission of Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries, ref 4-231B.  
Photographer James D Richardson

As the 1880s wore on, and the Theatre Royal (left) became a place where Robert Neal sold tea, the line of horse-drawn vehicles extended further up Victoria Street West.


Image by permission of Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries, ref 35-R33.  
Photographer Frederick George Radcliffe.

The old barrack buildings are down and much of Albert Park is hidden behind the increasing height of central Auckland buildings later in the early 1900s. The park's trees are now starting to appear, along with the houses on the skyline of the well-to-do on Princes Street. Working horses have space to munch from feedbags, while one of Auckland's early electric trams trundles along Queen Street below.

Image from Google Maps.


The intersection of Victoria Street and Queen Street today is a busy place.  The vehicle capturing images for Google Maps must have hit a quiet time, probably not rush hour. Sticking a structure, no matter how temporary or important to the national interest, right in the middle of Victoria Street West just wouldn't happen anymore.


Image by permission of Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries, ref 1-W1594.  
Photographer Henry Winkelmann, 23 April 1917.

But it did in March 1916. Above is the Auckland Recruiting Station, the subject of this post, erected and paid for by Auckland City Council, and manned by volunteers as well as defence department staff.



The interior of the recruiting station's office. Image by permission of Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries, ref 1-W1598Photographer Henry Winkelmann, 23 April 1917.

My information on the recruiting station comes from Auckland Council Archives; the minutes of the Auckland Recruiting Committee, ACC 182/1, p. 131, and the Town Clerk's secretarial file on the station, ACC 275/16-283.

On 1 March 1916, the Recruiting Committee approved the erection of the station as per a presented plan. The City Engineer's department went ahead and built the structure, using primarily "Poilite" brand asbestos sheeting for the walls and roof.

NZ Truth, 12 May 1923


The interior of the examining room of the recruiting station. Image by permission of Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries, ref 1-W1597Photographer Henry Winkelmann, 23 April 1917.


Councillor Brinsden, he who would later be a leading figure opposed to the licence for the Dixieland Cabaret out at Pt Chevalier in the 1920s, raised a question as to the cost of the station. The City Treasurer supplied the expenses as at 21 March 1916, which included the following:

To erect the station: £81 2s 9d
Repair flags: 4 shillings
Asbestos slates, ridging etc:  £99
Calico streamers: £20 2s
Recruiting posters: £9 2s
Timber: £103 2s 8d

The total cost of erecting the station, the City Engineer, Walter Ernest Bush, informed the Town Clerk on 7 April, was £327 17s 4d, or around nearly $40,000. Yes, less expensive materials could have been used, he wrote, but "Poilite" tiles on the roof in lieu of corrugated iron was in order to enhance the building as much as possible, as well as to keep the temperature down to the lowest minimum. (I'd say he meant for Auckland's hot summery weather). The asbestos sheeting used instead of weatherboard for the cladding was simply a cheaper option.

The interior of the office of the recruiting station. Image by permission of Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries, ref 1-W1599Photographer Henry Winkelmann, 23 April 1917.




The interior of the record room of the recruiting station. Image by permission of Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries, ref 1-W1600Photographer Henry Winkelmann, 23 April 1917.
Wanganui Chronicle 23 October 1915


Image by permission of Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries, ref 1-W1596.  
Photographer Henry Winkelmann, 23 April 1917.



Image by permission of Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries, ref 1-W1595.  
Photographer Henry Winkelmann, 23 April 1917.

By the end of June 1917, however, the Defence Department decided that they wanted to use the building more for medical purposes than recruiting, and the Victoria-Queen Street intersection was too noisy. They proposed to have the entire building uplifted and relocated to the north of the Art Gallery on Kitchener Street, part of Albert Park. The Mayor prepared a quick series of memos to all the councillors, and they wrote in their individual agreement to the plan. It cost the Council £78 11s 9d to relocate the building for the department. Well, I suppose there was a war on, you couldn't expect central government to pay for everything ...

Just after the war, the department wrote to the Council reporting that the heaters weren't working properly, and asking for them to be fixed. Politely, the Town Clerk responded that, as the Defence Department had taken over the building, it was up to them to deal with maintenance issues such as faulty heating, and recommended that any of a number of city-based service providers be contacted.

Finally, in November 1920, the Assistant Town Clerk wrote to the Minister of Defence, asking that the building be removed from its Kitchener Street location. By then, when it had ceased being used by the wartime Medical Board, the department had adapted it for use as a vocational training institution for returned soldiers. On 7 February 1921, the department replied that they would re-erect the building on another site. Where, I do not yet know -- but its story in central Auckland seems to have drawn to an end at that point.



Image by permission of Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries, ref A-4537.  
Photographer unknown.
I'll end the post with this shot -- looking down Victoria Street West, towards the Albert Park skyline, c.1885. A young Aucklander walking down the middle of the street, arm swinging, the future ahead of him. Just such a grand view of the old town.

7 comments:

  1. To think I used to work in Victoria Street in the 1980's and the views strangely enough look very familiar. It's changed of course but looking at the hill and things...funny how you get to know the landscape despite the buildings changing over decades. Fantastic post. Just loved this. Really nice of Auckland Council Libraries to grant permission for posting these.

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  2. I notice in those photos that there were no long queues of men, eagerly lining up to join the next wave of cannon fodder at the Somme!
    I guess the lessons of Gallipoli were having an effect by then...

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  3. I think so. By that stage, it seemed they were moving from voluntary recruitment to conscription. Ugly business, war.

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  4. Crikey doesnt that last photo make it look all higgelty piggelty!

    Fantastic info Lisa... LOVED the info on the recruiting station. Can't imagine how many lads lives ended just by walking through those doors...basically...

    Sandy

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  5. I agree. Those images of the rooms inside are haunting. That's how young men were sent to die on Flanders Fields ...

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  6. THANK YOU FOR THE POST OF THESE PHOTOS. I LOVE TO SEE THROUGH THESE OLD PHOTOS JUST HOW MY CITY GREW UP. I CAN STILL REMEMBER SOME OF THESE BUILDINGS IN VICTORIA STREET WHEN I WAS A YOUNGSTER IN THE 1960s.

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