Preserving our maritime and city heritage is one of the key aims of the waterfront development.

There are many and varied heritage elements on the waterfront - buildings, gates, cranes, monuments, bollards – and we have restored and refurbished many of them, preserving them for future generations to admire, enjoy and learn from.

Buildings

There are many heritage buildings on Wellington’s waterfront from the Herd St Post & Telegraph Building in the south east to Shed 21 (Waterloo on Quay apartments) at the northern end adjacent to the Railway Station. 

Herd Street Post and Telegraph Building – Waitangi Precinct

Designed by Edmund Anscombe and built in 1939, what has commonly been known as the old Herd Street Post Office is one of Wellington’s most distinctive art deco buildings. It was originally five storeys high with two full-size tennis courts on the roof.  But four years after it was built, they were demolished to make way for a sixth storey. The building continued to be used by the then Post Office until the last 1980s and is currently being redeveloped into Chaffers Dock – a mix of apartments, restaurants and shops.

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Circa Theatre – Taranaki Street Wharf Precinct

Circa Theatre, a professional theatre company founded in 1976 by a group of actors and directors, moved to its current site in 1994.  Circa has performed hundreds of plays since it began and is a significant part of the thriving theatre scene in Wellington.

The building contains two performance spaces and a cafe/bar.  The front façade is the last remaining portion of Westport Chambers, built on the other side of Cable Street, opposite its current location.  The Westport Coal Company was formed in 1885 and was once the country's biggest coal suppliers.  The façade was moved to this site and the rest of the building, designed by architect Graeme Anderson and theatre consultant Grant Tilly, was constructed around it.

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Shed 22 (The Wellington Brewing Company and The Brewery Restaurant and Bar) – Taranaki Street Wharf Precinct

Shed 22, which started life as your basic wharf shed, is now barely recognisable as the Wellington Brewery, a popular bar and restaurant. Built in 1921, it was rendered redundant with the arrival of container shipping. 

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Odlin Building – Taranaki Street Wharf Precinct

Built in 1907 as the head office of timber and building hardware merchants C and A Odlin Ltd, the Odlin building is a rare example of Edwardian industrial building design. Having sat empty for many years, it is undergoing a major facelift and refurbishment by Willis Bond and Co Ltd.   It will be home to the New Zealand Stock Exchange and P & O Nedlloyd’s New Zealand head office over four upper floors, with restaurants on the ground floor and seven apartments on the top floor.

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Wellington Free Ambulance Building – Taranaki Street Wharf Precinct

Purpose-built around 1930, the Wellington Free Ambulance building is one of the finest art deco buildings in the city.  Designed by William Turnbull, the building served the purpose for which it was built for some 60 years.  It then operated as a bar for some years and has also played host to theatre and special events.  Now it’s about to be restored and refurbished by Willis Bond and Co Ltd into a mix of restaurant, bar and office facilities.

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Wellington Rowing Club – Taranaki Street Wharf Precinct

Built in 1894 to a design by Frederick de Jersey Clere, the building was built as a base for the Wellington Naval Artillery Volunteers prompted by a Defence report in 1884 that recommended strengthening Wellington’s harbour defences to help prevent possible invasion.  The late 19th century was a period of New Zealand history where there was great anxiety about a sea invasion, particularly from Russia, which led to a range of defence structures being built around the waterfront. Luckily, the building was never needed for that purpose and in 1927 it was the first home of the Wellington Free Ambulance. When the WFA moved into its new purpose-built home, the Wellington Rowing Club took over in 1931 and has been there ever since. The building was moved in 1990 from its original Jervois Quay site to the other side of the lagoon at Frank Kitts Park, along with the Star Boating Club.

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Star Boating Club – Taranaki Street Wharf Precinct

Built for the club in 1885-6,  the Star Boating Club was originally known as the Star Regatta Club.  The club is New Zealand’s oldest surviving rowing club and one of the oldest clubs of any type in the country. It too is in a new home – it started life alongside Jervois Quay and was moved by steam engine to a site near the corner of Cable Street and Jervois Quay, and then in 1989 to where it currently resides next to the Wellington Rowing Club beside the lagoon at Frank Kitts Park, facing the city instead of the sea for the first time in its history. While it’s the building’s third home, remarkably its purpose has remained the same.

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Queens Wharf Offices – Queens Wharf Precinct

Standing as a sentinel on one side of the entrance to Queens Wharf is what used to be known as Shed 7 or the Wharf Offices. The Wharf Offices began life as a mix of office, wool store and display space and are a Frederick de Jersey Clere design, built in 1896. This stunning example of late Victorian architecture is now known as the Queens Wharf Apartments (converted in 1994), and since 2000, has also been home to the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts.

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Bond Store (now the Museum of Wellington City & Sea) – Queens Wharf Precinct

It seems entirely fitting that 100 years of port history has been kept for posterity and is now on show in the Museum of Wellington City & Sea in the building that was the head office of the former Wellington Harbour Board.

Another design by leading architect Frederick de Jersey Clere (whose work can be seen in many waterfront buildings that remain), the building was completed in 1892.  As well as the Harbour Board headquarters, it housed the Bond Store – a holding warehouse for goods requiring payment of customs duty.  It largely remained in authentic condition until the Museum of Wellington City and Sea opened in 1999.

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Shed 5 – Queens Wharf Precinct

Built in 1886 to a design by William Ferguson, Shed 5 was originally a timber warehouse and is the oldest building left on the waterfront. It has kept its name since opening in 1992 as an upmarket restaurant and bar.

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Shed 3 (Dockside Restaurant and Bar) – Queens Wharf Precinct

Built in 1887 as a single storey building, Shed 3 used to be a timber warehouse. The top storey was added early in the 20th century and since 1991, Shed 3 (now called Dockside) has been operating as a popular bar and restaurant.

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Steamship Wharf – Kumutoto Precinct

The first built development included in the master plan for Kumutoto is the former Union Steamship Co. Building, which has been moved next to the Fronde Harbourside Centre from its original Greta Point home. The building has been renamed ‘Steamship Wharf' and houses a combination of restaurants, bars and function facilities.

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Shed 11 and Shed 13 – Kumutoto Precinct

Built in 1904-05, Shed 11 was originally a storage shed that played an important role in the commercial life of Wellington, but which became redundant after the advent of container shipping and in 1985 was converted into gallery space.

Today it is home to special functions, events and exhibitions and can be transformed into whatever party theme is required.

Shed 13 is like its closest neighbour (Shed 11) in all respects except it awaits a new use.

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Eastbourne Ferry Terminal and Ticket Office – Kumutoto Precinct

This two-storied weatherboard building (above) has a long history.  It dates from the early 1910s and derives its name from a former owner, the Eastbourne Borough Council, which ran a ferry service between Wellington City and Eastbourne from 1913 until 1948.  It’s now home to a graphic design company.

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Shed 21 (Waterloo On Quay Apartments) – Kumutoto Precinct

Shed 21 is the tallest of the wharf buildings still standing. It was completed in February 1911 as a wool store, with the top floor a wool exhbition space. The building was used for the Industrial Exhibition in 1911. It was largely unused in recent years until 2001 when it was converted into 43 apartments and office space.

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Gates

Queens Wharf Gates – Queens Wharf Precinct

Guarding the entrance to Queens Wharf are some very fine, yet imposing Victorian ironwork gates that were purpose-built in Britain in 1899 and erected to mark the departure of the second New Zealand contingent to the Boer War. They replaced small wooden stockade-like gates which had two sentry posts.

Taranaki Street Gates – Taranaki Street Wharf Precinct

Erected in 1907, these cast iron columns and gates are among the many remnants of the fine gates and railings that once enclosed the wharves.

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Heritage Features

Plimmer's Ark – Queens Wharf Precinct

Queens Wharf may be the heart of the bustling nightlife on the waterfront but it is also the resting place of The Inconstant – an 1848 Nova Scotia-built wooden sailing ship that ran aground on Pencarrow Heads only a year after it first set sail. The ship was bought by Wellington businessman John Plimmer, who had it beached and converted into a warehouse and wharf, hence it became known as Plimmer’s Ark. The ship’s remains were found under the Old Bank and Chambers complex during its restoration in 1997. Some 40 tonnes of the ship’s remains representing four-fifths of the lower part of the vessel were removed from the site and are now being conserved and are on display in the Plimmer’s Ark Gallery. It is the largest ship in New Zealand ever to be conserved. The bow section remains on display in the Old Bank Arcade in its original location.

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Hikitia – Taranaki Street Wharf Precinct

The Hikitia floating crane is a Wellington icon and thought to be the world’s oldest ship of this type still working. Berthed at Taranaki Street Wharf, she is Wellington’s oldest ship by a nautical mile. Built in Scotland in 1926 she sailed from Glasgow on 29 September and arrived in Wellington on 21 December – some 84 days which is considered a record distance for a ship of this type. She began work almost immediately and for 63 years was taken for granted and unheralded – doing construction work, helping with the demolition of the Wahine and much more. In 1990 she was purchased for preservation by two couples. Much hard work followed by the owners and many volunteers and they were rewarded in July 1992 when the ship was approved to lift 80 tonnes after succeeding in an 88 tonne lift – not bad for a then 66-year-old ship.  She recently did a 100-tonne test lift to maintain her licence, which is as good as she did in 1926 when she first arrived in Wellington. 

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Historic Cranes – Queens Wharf Precinct

Located at Queens Wharf are two cranes, surviving examples of the many cranes that once lined the waterfront.

 The level luffing crane (above), made by Stothert & Pitt Ltd of England in 1951, is the only one left in Wellington and probably the last surviving example of its kind in the country.  These cranes were once commonplace on the waterfront, from Queens Wharf  to Aotea Quay. 

The other crane is an example of a Tripod Crane (below), which were in use throughout the world until the advent of container shipping in the 1960s.  There were once nine of these cranes on Glasgow Wharf and this is the last remaining on the waterfront. 

Both cranes were restored in 2000.

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Straddle Crane – Queens Wharf Precinct

A fine example of the one of the carriers in use during the early years of container shipping is the Series 520 Straddle Carrier located at Queens Wharf, near Dockside Restaurant.

The carrier sits astride a 40ft shipping container through which the public can view a static display of the history of Wellington’s waterfront.

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