The kitchen, now known as the Waitoa Room and sometimes referred to as the Buttery, and the dining hall at St John's College, are, along with the Chapel, the only surviving examples of the original college buildings built between 1845 and 1850. They represent the first and only completed stage of Bishop Selwyn's original plan for a complex modelled on the colleges of Oxford or Cambridge.

The kitchen built from 1845-6 was probably originally designed by Sampson Kempthorne but was completed by Frederick Thatcher after the former's return to England in mid-1845. Somewhat stolid in its proportions, it was built from local scoria laid in rubble courses and, inside, features a large fire-place at the west end and a splendid open timber roof, almost certainly the work of Frederick Thatcher. A simple rectangle in plan it is a crude structure, but one of the few remaining examples of building techniques in Auckland at that time.

The dining hall was built 1848-49 to a design by Frederick Thatcher. It has a steep-pitched roof and is of timber construction. In contrast to the College Chapel, the exterior is clad in vertical board and batten and the framework is internal thus protecting it from the weather. The building is H-shaped in plan and is linked to the kitchen on its northern side.

The clear expression of materials and structure in both buildings reveals the interest by Selwyn and Thatcher in the architectural principles of the Gothic Revival.

Along with their association with the ideals of the eminent Bishop Selwyn, both buildings are an important link with the early development of the Church of England in New Zealand.