The small Shipping Office (Former), located at 3 Church Street, Akaroa, was built in 1895 as the office of W. H. Henning, shipping and general agent for the Union Steam Ship Company, and is a particularly fine example of an elaborately Italianate style façade executed in timber. Despite its small size, its Classical style façade, constructed in timber but to give the appearance of stone, is a deliberate attempt to give this commercial building a solid, respectable air. It has aesthetic, architectural, historical, cultural and social significance. Akaroa Harbour is a large, long harbour on the southern coast of Horomaka/Te Pātaka-a-Rākaihautū (Banks Peninsula). Tuhiraki (Mount Bossu) is the kō (digging stick) of the famous Waitaha explorer Rākaihautū. Akaroa was occupied by iwi such as Hāwea, Waitaha, Rapuwai, and Kāti Māmoe prior to the southern Kāi Tūhaitara migration to Canterbury. Te Ake was one of several Ngāi Tahu tūpuna (ancestors) who claimed land during this migration, placing his tokotoko at the head of the harbour. Akaroa continues to be a renowned mahinga kai (food-gathering area) for the local Kāi Tahu hapū based at the small kāika of Ōnuku which is located just to the south of Paka Ariki, Akaroa township. By the early nineteenth century, Akaroa Harbour had become a favourite port of call for whaling ships. French whaler, Jean François Langlois became involved in land transactions in the area in the late 1830s, which eventually lead to the founding of the Nanto-Bordelaise Company and ultimately, in August 1840, French (and some German) settlers from the Comte de Paris landing at Paka Ariki/Akaroa. British settlers also came to Akaroa and, for a time, the north part of Akaroa was the ‘French town’ and the south part was the ‘English town’. Englishman, W. H. Henning, had arrived in New Zealand in the 1870s and in around 1877 became shipping agent for the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, which had been established in Dunedin in 1875. He was still a pivotal shipping agent in the mid-1890s when it was decided to build a new Shipping Office on Church Street in the southern part of Akaroa. In 1895 the Christchurch architectural firm of Collins and Harman was engaged to design ‘Henning’s premises’. Situated not far from the main Akaroa wharf, and designed by the well-known architectural firm of Collins and Harman, the Shipping Office (Former) is notable for its small-scale yet elaborate Classical façade rendered in timber to appear like stone. While the sides of the building are plain brick and timber, the principal façade employs considerable Classical decorative detail: timber quoining, rusticated timber pilasters, an arched entry frame with voussoirs and a central keystone and a central pediment and detailed balustrade parapet. By the turn of the twentieth century, Henning & Co. were the agents for a number of international shipping companies, handling travel to Australia, Canada, Europe and the Pacific. Akaroa continued to have regular shipping links with Lyttelton, Timaru and Otago ports until eventually, the improvement of Peninsula roads led to a decline in shipping services in and out of Akaroa. When the shipping company no longer needed premises in Akaroa, the Shipping Office (Former) building on Church Street was used for other commercial purposes- a café/restaurant, antique shop and offices – and now, in the early twenty first century, it functions as holiday accommodation. The building has been altered over the years, both internally and externally, including following the Canterbury Earthquakes of 2010-11, but the integrity of the façade and the form of the building has been retained.