The Waiariki Stream

Images by Phil Hanson.

The comments exchange between me and past comments contributor Phil Hanson at the end of this post on the Shortland Street area has borne fruit, I'm delighted to say. Phil has done what he said he'd do -- gone out, and explored the Waiariki Stream (good on you, Phil!) Here's his email, with my comment first, then his response:

"According to a 1939 Wises Directory I've got here, Grey & Menzies' factory was at No. 15 Eden Crescent. That might be a good place to look, Phil. Checking the aerials, there's a building in front of the carpark area at the rear today, though."

"The buildings to which you refer are the Faculty of Law at Auckland University. I visited there today and access to the parking area is not restricted. I checked the wall thoroughly and found only one possible location, shown in the attached photos. The wider view is taken from the balcony of the law building. What a shame there is no plaque recognising this tiny but important peek at Auckland's past. By the way, I remember Grey & Menzies "cordials" from my early youth; they were the favoured brand in our household and my parents used to buy them by the crate. That's not as bad as it sounds; it would be today's equivalent of picking up a 12-pack of Coke at the supermarket!"

Thanks, Phil. Great shots -- and yes, it's a pity there isn't more recognition on the ground for something which was and is a part of our city's story.

Beside Te Wai Ariki: from the Mason's Hotel to the Hotel Cargen

Rev John Kinder drawing of Eden Crescent looking west. Old St Pauls on the horizon, part of the Royal Hotel complex centre-right. 4-1208, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries

On spotting some early photos of Eden Crescent via the Te Papa Museum collection recently, I felt the urge to look into the story of the second Royal Hotel. Said story turned out to be somewhat more involved than I imagined.

28 September 1925, 4-1975, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries

The landscape remains almost the same, even if the buildings have changed, as seen in these first three images.

 Eden Crescent, looking east towards former Hotel Cargen. Photo: L Truttman, 14 September 2014

 On to the story.

 Detail from Plan of the Town of Auckland, Charles Heaphy, 1851 (NZ Map 816, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries)

The original name for Official Bay, once a line of beach separated from Commercial Bay to the west by Point Britomart, and just along from Mechanics Bay to the east, was Waiariki. Te Keene, of Ngati Kahu and Ngati Poataniwha, testified at the Native Land Court in December 1866 that local iwi had plantations there, no doubt supplied by the almost never-failing Te Waiariki spring from the Waterloo Quadrant ridge and Albert Park. The spring still runs beneath the site of the Royal Hotel/Cargen.

Initial land sales at Official Bay were quite early. That for Lot 6 of Section 8, City of Auckland occurred in 1842, when Dudley Sinclair bought this and other sections around the city. He didn't live long, with an ignominious end in 1844.

"Lachlan McLachlan, who had come to Auckland in connection with the Manukau Land Company's enterprise, was called an adventurer by Dudley Sinclair, eldest son of Sir George Sinclair. McLachlan challenged him and, failing to receive an answer, called on Sinclair and whipped him with his own horse whip. Sinclair wished to challenge McLachlan but Conroy, Sinclair's second, advised against it. Sinclair committed suicide soon after, on 22 October, the inquest returning a verdict of temporary insanity."

"Pseudo Duels", An Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 1966.

Suicide in a truly brutal fashion -- Sinclair cut his own throat.

Probate of Sinclair's will was granted in December 1844 to William Smellie Grahame as executor, but it wasn't until April 1846 that Sinclair's personal effects were put up for auction. His selection of real estate around the town was sold soon after. The title to section 9 of 6, the corner site of Short Street and Eden Crescent, was transferred to a purchaser named Martin in November 1847.

In January 1849, an advertisement appeared in the New Zealander for the sale of a commodious house just two sections away from the corner of Short Street and Eden Crescent. Connell & Ridings advised prospective buyers, "It could readily be thrown into one concern and would be very suitable for a grocery store or Public House, much wanted in that neighbourhood. There is a constant run of Fresh water on the Premises." Less than three months later, we see Alfred C Joy appear, applying in April for a publican's licence for his new hotel in Official Bay, the Mason's Hotel. It is as if Joy answered the neighbourhood's much wanted need, as per the January advertisement.

Joy's new hotel was the original wooden building at the corner of Short Street and Eden Crescent, seen below in a detail from an image by George Pulman, photographed probably in the early 1860s. It was in a perfect position to take advantage of traffic to and from Wynyard Pier at the end of Short Street from 1851-1852.

 

In April 1852, the licence for the Mason's Home/Hotel was transferred to James Palmer. Previously, he'd tried for a licence for the Oddfellows Home in Mechanics Bay the year before. Palmer is someone familiar to me due to his later connections with the Whau Hotels and Banwell. Palmer (1819-1893) left Plymouth bound for New Zealand on 4 December 1842 on the Westminster, arriving 31 March 1843.He may have been the James Palmer applying for a licence for the "Crispin Arms" somewhere on Eden Crescent in 1847, but that was likely just a very brief attempt at a hotel in the area before the Masons Home.

Palmer obtained title to section 7 right alongside the Mason’s Home in May 1853, and may have offered this for sale in March 1854 (an advertisement matches the description – SC 14 March). But, it turns out he hung onto the site instead, and expanded the hotel with a grand brick addition.

c1860s. "Looking east from Short Street, showing the north side of Eden Crescent with the Royal Hotel and the Auckland Club, hitching posts at hotel entrance," 4-28, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries

The Royal Hotel.— This fine building, which has been in course of erection for the past eighteen months, is now completed, and forms without exception the finest and most substantially constructed edifice in this city. Indeed, it is considerably in advance of the place and will, we are inclined to think, stand forth for some years to come as a favourable specimen of our srreet architecture. The front of the building, which is of Matakana stone, is chaste and simple in its design, and altogether free from those heavy attempts at architectural display which too often only tend to disfigure a building, and to exhibit the ignorance of the architect. From the street one can scarcely form an idea of the real size of the building, but from the water "it looms large," and has a very striking effect. The rooms are spacious and lofty, and fitted up with every regard to comfort. On the second floor, the long room, if not the largest, is certainly the best proportioned and most elegantly furnished in Auckland, and fully capable of accommodating a dinner party of forty. As a ball or concert room it is well adapted, and we should think would suit the Auckland Club, should they find it necessary to seek temporary accommodation, pending their obtaining premises of their own. A fine verandah, extending the whole width of the building, commands an extensive view seaward. The bedrooms are spacious, well ventilated, and remarkable for the neatness of their fittings and the cleanliness of their furniture. Indeed, the Royal Hotel is in every respect amply provided for the accommodation and comfort of its frequenters. At present, it lacks but one desideratum, a billiard table but this want will be soon supplied, a first class table having been ordered by Mr. Palmer from one of the best makers. The opening day was marked by a housewarming dinner, which came off last week, and which we are informed afforded unqualified satisfaction to a very numerous and respectable company.

Southern Cross 23 October 1857 p. 3

The Auckland Club shifted into the new building by 1858, and made it their permanent meeting space.

The following year, the license for the Royal Hotel as both buildings were now known went to Charles Joslin.

Southern Cross 1 October 1858

But, Joslin declared bankruptcy in September 1859, and Palmer once again tried selling his asset.

Southern Cross, 15 July 1859

Come October 1864, however, we see that Palmer not only retained title for the brick addition and its land, but obtains title for the original wooden hotel as well. Palmer's land dealings in this part of Eden Crescent are quite involved, taking in property on the other side of the road as well, part of the future drinks factory site for Grey & Menzies. Things came personally unstuck for him and his family when two of his sons drowned in April 1865, the bodies recovered and brought back to the hotel. In February 1868, a meeting of Palmer's creditors was held -- then, as later in the Whau, he had mortgaged himself to the hilt. One of his creditors was Henry Chamberlin, who was granted title to the brick addition and its land by the courts in March 1868 (DI 5A.892). In March 1869 came a notice in the newspapers of a sale by auction of the remainder Palmer's real estate, and this time it really did happen: Palmer left the Royal Hotel in 1870. In September that year, John Jacob Fernandez offered "hot luncheon, with English Ale and Porter, during sittings of the Supreme Court," the Royal being the nearest accommodation house to the courts up on the hill.

c.1869, "Looking east from Eden Crescent showing Short St (left), St Andrews Church (right), Royal Hotel (centre left) and the Supreme Court (right background)," Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries

In May 1871, Palmer conveyed the wooden hotel to Henry Beedle and Donald N Watson. Henry Beedell from August 1866 was in business as an ale and porter brewer on New North Road. With Watson and William McGlashan, Beedle was in various partnership setups until September 1866. From early 1872, they ran a bottling store in Wyndham Street, and as at 1873 owned a former hotel at Stokes Point on the North Shore. They sold the last of their interest in Lot 6 (6 and 8, at the rear of the later Cargen extension) with small cottages thereon in January 1876, as well as their brewery near New North and Mt Eden Roads, Lots 7-11 and 3 of section 3 of 2A and 2B of Section 10, Suburbs of Auckland (between Flower, Nikau and Karori Streets, Eden Terrace).

In February 1873, they sold their interest in the wooden hotel site to Chamberlin.

Chamberlin was an entrepreneur, landowner, and politician. The wooden and brick hotel at Eden Crescent was an investment to him and his family. He applied to have the licence put under his name in 1871; in August that year transferred to Richard Nicholson; then transferred the licence to Petert Boylan in 1873. By 1876, the brick Royal Hotel was back on the market, and in 1877 both buildings were. In November 1882, Chamberlin successfully sold the property to John Chadwick. The complex reopened as the "Old Club" the following month.

Auckland Star 19 December 1882

In September 1883, Chadwick transferred title to surveyor Charles Alma Baker, who had dealings in 1886-1887 with a solicitor named Alfred Edgar Whitaker, and an agent Henry Ernest Whitaker. The title transferred to them for a time, then back to Baker, then finally defaulted through unpaid mortgage to widow Elizabeth Chamberlin in 1888 (that year, her husband Henry drowned in a pond at Drury). The widow's interest was shared with her agent Edmund Augustus McKechnie, and he transferred interest to Charles Chamberlin by 1890 (rates books, Auckland Council Archives).

At some point around 1900-1902, the old wooden ex-hotel at the corner was demolished. A survey plan from 1902 shows a clear site, and the rates records from that time on refer only to the brick building.

DP 3070, LINZ records, crown copyright

Eden Crescent, c.1900. Only bare ground where the old 1849 wooden hotel on the corner once stood. The "shadow" of the building can be seen on the brick wall of the 1850s extension Palmer built. Te Papa museum collection, C.011096.

The last time the 1850s brick part of the hotel was referred to as "Old Club" was in 1905. In 1904, it  was up for sale, but the two sites (vacant corner and brick hotel) weren't sold until 1907. A "Glendowie House" appears in the papers in 1905, lately run by W J Ford ("Old Club") but from then run by Mrs Robertson. Basically, the brick hotel was a boarding house, known by more than one name. Until in 1907 when it became known as "Cargen", run by Mr and Mrs Edward Francis Black.

Then in 1908, a building permit was filed with Auckland City Council for a new wooden accommodation house on the corner site.

Detail from permit plan 353, AKC 339, Auckland Council Archives

The new building cost £1800, and was organised by Gregory Benmore Osmond, holder of the land title from August that year. The development was for the Blacks as Cargen Hotel Proprietary, and culminated in a 7-storey extension to the combined Cargen Hotel in 1912-1913, designed by R W de Montalk. This extension today is all that is left of the Cargen Hotel complex of three buildings. Cargen Proprietary remained as owner until 1939.

13 September 1927, showing the three buildings in the Hotel Cargen complex. 1-W841, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries

The Blacks left the Cargen in 1920, and sold the chattels in a much-reported event, opening up to the public the finery in the private hotel.

Auckland Star 11 June 1920

Auckland Star 2 July 1920

Bertha Braik was the next manager, from 1921 to around 1925, followed by Robert Chesny, a hotel manager with Hancock & Co, the brewery company already having a controlling interest in the business which culminated in their name on the title from 1939.

Looking east along Eden Crescent, the Cargen complex in the centre. 4-1973, 1925, Sir George Grey Special Collections.

Cargen complex at left. 28 December 1931, 4-4246, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries.

1925. From Anzac Ave, looking at the rear of the complex, left. Short Street at right. 4-1903, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries

Governors-General presided over Empire Day dinners and balls at the Hotel Cargen, Auckland each year on May 24 both between the wars, and after World War 2 (when the hotel was renamed Transtasman); Governor-General Lord Freyberg “used the day to deliver some of his hardest-hitting speeches,” according to nzhistory.net. The co-founder and foundation member of the NZ Chefs Association Inc., Sid Young, started his traineeship at the Cargen as a cook in 1935. In 1940, in the atmosphere of a number of corporates making donations to aid the war effort, Hancock & Co gave the hotel to the Auckland Hospital Board for use as a home for nurses. This gift meant a lot to the Board at the time, as they faced an accommodation bill of £11,000 a year for their staff. However, the original 1912 design of the eastern extension, and alterations done in 1924, was criticised in a report from consultants employed by the Board in 1942, with a number of defects, mainly concerning roof leaks but also involving rotted floors and balcony posts, showing up which brought the Board concern. 

The Hospital Board kept possession of the hotel, however, throughout the rest of the war years, and conveyed it back to Hancock & Co in 1946. Around 1947, the hotel was renamed Transtasman, and reopened to accommodate around 60 guests. However, the four main brewery companies (New Zealand Breweries, Dominion Breweries, Hancock and Company and Campbell and Ehrenfried) put a plan to the government to be permitted to demolish the original hotel and wooden building beside and erect a new 300 room hotel on the site. In 1955, Hancock & Co transferred ownership to Hotel Transtasman Ltd, and at some point after this, but before the United Empire Box Company (UEB) purchased the hotel in 1963, the 1908 and 1850s buildings were demolished, to create a carpark. By 1971, the remaining part of the hotel was a series of commercial offices, which it remains to this day. 

Detail from 1966 topo map, showing the cleared space beside the 1912-1913 extension to the Cargen. NZ Map 2049, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries

Detail from 1968 aerial, NZ Map 3249, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries

Eden Crescent, looking east from just opposite Short Street, 14 September 2014.

The remains of the Hotel Cargen -- the surviving 1913-1913 extension.

An update: photos by Laurie Knight of the Hotel Cargen, May 2017, The building has just been sold by tender, and work is underway inside at the time this images were taken.

A platform and and a pier at Official Bay

Detail from SO 4, crown copyright, LINZ records

I was looking for early things regarding Parnell recently, and a mis-cataloguing by Land Information New Zealand and their Landonline service led me to a Survey Office plan which wasn't about Parnell at all. Sometime in the very early 1860s, someone (perhaps Charles Heaphy) prepared what was to become SO 4, showing detail to a few bits of land in Freeman's Bay, and Official Bay.

This was what intrigued me: "Carr's Platform", just to the east adjoining the long T-shaped Wynyard Pier in Official Bay. A fenced-odd square (actually likely retaining wall, see comments below) on the beach, beside a sawpit, and possibly Carr's factory just below.

This plan also showed two more sets of similar structures, over at Freeman's Bay.

So, who was this man who owned a platform at Official Bay?

James William Carr, photo held at Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries. Reproduced with permission.

According to Euan and Robert Carr, who wrote about their ancestor in the Auckland-Waikato Historical Journal, April 2000, James William Carr was born in London in 1827.  His father was a boat builder as was his grandfather. Their article says that Carr arrived with his bride here in Auckland in 1849, and started a boat building business here, before a brief interruption of travelling to San Francisco after word of the gold there, only to return in March 1851. He must have kept his head down, though -- or didn't actually have a business of his own in Auckland until later, in November 1853, where we see he had been employed by a Mr Beeson, and had only just taken over premises at Fort Street, to build his boats.

 

Southern Cross 29 November 1853

But, as seen later, Carr advertised that his business began in 1849. Whatever the true date was -- it appears he was usually quite successful, and good at his trade.

 

Southern Cross 5 September 1854

Southern Cross 15 August 1859

By late 1859, we find Carr on the move. This was the period when Commercial Bay was being filled in and reclaimed, and Customs Street formed in front of Fort Street, no longer the fore shore and haven for boat builders. He obviously decided to move east. He took out a lease on Lot 15, Section 8 of the City of Auckland in June 1859 (DI 1A.92, LINZ records), the site right next to Wynyard Pier. Obvious, then, why he so-named his boat-building factory there, near the end of Short Street.

Southern Cross 11 February 1862

 

Southern Cross 15 November 1862

He assigned his lease to a Mr Harris in August 1862, and by November that year the site where he'd been for less than three years was up for auction sale. He didn't reappear in the newspapers until March 1866, with his Red House boat building business, next to the Auckland Gas Company works in Brickfield Bay (the intersection of Wyndham and Nelson Streets today).

Southern Cross 5 March 1866

But where had he gone in the intervening four years? Apparently -- up north to Batley on the banks of the Otamatea River. James William Carr and his brother William Joshua Carr, according to Carr family history, had the first store there during the initial period of Albertlander settlement, a hut later taken over by Joseph Masefield, and later still becoming the site of the Batley wharf. Probably, like a few other cases during the Albertlander immigration period of the early 1860s, the brothers Carr weighed up the privations of life up in the Kaipara at the time, versus the rewards which (at that time) probably seemed very far off. William Joshua Carr left the colony, and James William Carr returned to Auckland.

The Welcome Dining Rooms opened on Customs Street West, opposite Gleeson's Hotel, bottom of Nelson Street, in 1883. Photo ref 4-RIC372, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Library.

By the 1880s, Carr's sons had joined the business. In 1883, Carr was elected to the Mt Roskill Road Board, becoming chairman two years later and remaining in that post for ten years. Carr Road in Mt Roskill is said to be named after him. He died in 1909 and was buried at Purewa Cemetery.

But as to why whoever drew up the survey plan called his patch on the beach a "platform" -- I still don't know. Any ideas from readers would be welcome.

Detail from SO 9, 1864, crown copyright, LINZ records

As for the Wynyard Pier itself, that originated from a subscription drive for funds in April 1851, and while it wasn't opened officially, the Southern Cross eagerly awaited its completion later that year.

During the progress of this Pier, we have frequently had occasion to allude to the beauty and solidity of the construction, as well as to the vast convenience it is calculated to afford to passengers landing, and embarking at all times of tide. The work is now approaching towards completion, and we may, we believe, safely assert, that a more substantial or more graceful structure could not easily be put together. The pier is indeed a feature of gratifying prominence in Official Bay. It is in the shape of the letter T and from its landward to its seaward extremities, is 480 feet in length, by 10 feet in breadth. Inside of either angle of the T there are staircases for the convenience of passengers and at intervals, further up the platform, there is also a staircase on either side. When we recollect that for the last ten or eleven years there existed in Auckland no landing place whatever, we cannot but feel grateful to Lieut-Colonel Wynyard for the anxiety he evinced in originating this pier, as well as for the unwearied assiduity with which he has at length conducted it to successful and substantial completion ... Under these circumstances, then, we venture to express a hope that when this pier shall be opened, as we understand it shortly will, it may receive the appropriate and well merited name of "The Wynyard Pier." And, to give eclat to that opening, occur when it may, we have heard that a miniature Regatta has been some time in contemplation. 

Southern Cross 28 November 1851

There was a bit of a fireworks display off the pier in August 1852, but as hardly anyone was told about it, hardly anyone attended.

One feature of Wynyard Pier was that this was where water was supplied, from a tank located just beside what was briefly Carr's boat building yards, supplied by a long piping system from the waters of the Waiariki spring, Waiariki being also the original name for Official Bay.

Wynyard pier (mid distance) as seen from eastern Mechanics Bay, 1850s. Ref 4-5182, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries.

Same view, 1860s. Ref 4-834, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries.

Wynyard Pier was where troops arrived by ship, disembarking for the march up to Albert Barracks in the 1850s. Foley's Menagerie, the first of its kind in the country in 1855, entertained Aucklanders alongside the pier on the beach amongst the trees -- possibly pohutukawas. In 1857, H Webster informed ladies via advertisement in the newspapers "that he has one of his Bathing Machines now ready, and at their service," from 7am to 1pm, and from 2 pm until evening, at the "Bathing Office, Wynyard Pier". His wife, a milliner, also sold tickets.

Henry Dangar's Steam four mill, preceding the pier by a matter if months in 1851, remained on the western side of the pier until around 1862, the period when Carr was shifting out and commencing his brief period up north.

By 1862, though, the pier seemed to have passed its heyday.

Sir, 

The pier in Official Bay seems gradually falling to pieces. Pray, who is to blame? I presume the provincial government have charge of it. It is a great pity for want of a stitch in time, that so useful a structure should be allowed to fall to pieces but I suppose no political partisans have land close to it. Yours, R. 

Southern Cross 24 November 1862

But -- not quite so.

Sir,

Could you, or any of your correspondents, inform me if Wynyard Pier is to be used for foot passengers alone, or to be a landing place for sheep, cattle, &c. As  I am informed, some hundred sheep were landed yesterday and to-day, causing a loss to me, and a breach of contract, if not protected, as I paid an advance of £600 and upwards on last year's rent, on the faith of no other wharf being allowed for traffic. I have always understood that Wynyard Pier was devoted to the personal convenience of the public and I presume the police, or someone having authority, will see who are the aggressors, and protect my traffic in future.

I am, &c, 

Jno. Russell, 

Lessee Queen-street Wharf. Auckland, January 13, 1864

Southern Cross 14 January 1864

Wynyard Pier was the point where Governors arrived, and from which Royals (such as Prince Alfred in 1869) left the city for other ports.

The stub of the pier in the 1870s. Beach Road is already being formed, and causeway formed across adjoining Mechanics Bay. Official Bay now virtually a memory. Ref. 4-540, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries.

But as the 1870s proceeded, the pier began to fade.

We are sorry to find that the Wynyard Pier is fast failing into a state of dilapidation, and is melting away. The timbers are perfectly rotten, and in many places the planks have disappeared bodily. This jetty has always been a favorite place for promenading on summer evenings, and even for that reason ought to be kept in such repair as would prevent people from breaking their legs. 

 Auckland Star 14 December 1871 

The disgraceful state of Wynyard Pier, to which we have repeatedly called attention, has at length caused an accident, as we predicted. Captain Gilfillan, of the schooner Nukulau, while going down the pier on Saturday night to where his boat was moored, slipped through one of the dangerous apertures which have wantonly been allowed to remain. He fortunately saved himself from dropping in the sea, but two of his ribs were fractured in the fall, and he is now under medical treatment. Public safety demands that the pier be either repaired forthwith or closed, and unless something is done after the repeated attention called to it by the press, should any fatal accident occur there is no hesitation in saying that the authorities, who have charge of this pier will have been as much guilty of manslaughter as any reckless driver who runs over and kills a fellow creature. 

 Auckland Star 11 March 1872

Railway works were commencing around this time, finally connecting Auckland with Onehunga -- and the beach where Carr built his boats became the line along which the trains would pass. In combination with that, Beach Road was initiated, linking downtown Auckland directly with Mechanics Bay and on to Parnell. The Auckland Harbour Board in January 1873 considered the old Wynyard Pier, now broken in two places by the railway contractor was "almost beyond repairing" and should probably be replaced by a wharf elsewhere. By July, the pier was largely demolished, the remainder just a jetty poking out from the other side of the railway embankment.

The pier's traffic now mainly redirected to Queen's Wharf, those east of the city felt aggrieved enough as to the inconvenience of losing their ready access thanks to railway construction as to take it through to Parliament in 1875, where proposals for re-erection of the pier were mooted. The wrangle over the lost access to the pier continued on as far as 1879.

Detail from "Standard Survey, City of Auckland", 1879. Ref NZ Map 116, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries.

The Auckland railyards, looking towards Parnell, 1880s. Wynyard Pier's remnant left of centre. Ref 4-1027, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries.

Petitioners asked the Harbour Board in 1879 to lengthen the stub of the pier into deep water -- but the Board turned down the request. Ladies, though, still strolled there, little boys fished, and the occasional shark was caught, and made the headlines. The public, with no direct access, simply crossed the railyards anyway, despite the dangers. The authorities seemed to relent in 1885 by promising a special road access to the old wharf -- but there was still discussion about a bridge access over the rail lines into 1889.

The extended Wynyard Pier, c1900. Ref 4-939, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries

Then, in 1899, the Harbour Board agreed to extend Wynyard Pier, by then popular with yachtsman as well as nearby boat builders. For the first three decades of last century, the pier remained -- but finally, development of both Tamaki Drive from 1928 and the Auckland Railway Station in the early 1930s on Beach Road finished it off. Carr's Platform would possibly now be deep under the vicinity of 73 Beach Road.