Historic Significance

Historical Significance or Value The following extract is taken from ' A Century of Service' by P T Murphy Wellington 1976: The Te Aro Branch was originally a sub-branch of Wellington. Opening on 23 October 1876, work was begun on new premises in 1877. On the vacant land the Bank owned in Manners Street, adjoining its premises, it constructed a small shop and auction rooms. These were completed by the contractor T & A Wilson, in 1897, and thereupon leased out to Francis Sidney, an auctioneer for ten years. In 1900, Sidney sold the lease to Robert Pearson. On 6 July 1012, the Te Aro Branch moved into temporary accommodation, and the old bank premises and the auction mart were demolished to make way for a larger building. Thomas Turnbull and his son, William, designed the new building. The building composed of three floors with a mezzanine floor over the banking chamber, and rooms were available for leasing. The contractors for the 1913 building were Campbell and Burke, and they received £13,158 in payment for the construction. The contract price seems interestingly low, as do the rents of the period. Francis Sidney only paid £185 per annum as rent on his Auction Mart, and Robert Pearson, who bought his lease, paid a yearly rental of £286. The small shop in the premises was rented out in 1910 for £2 per annum. For about twenty years, Mr Bartley, the caretaker, lived in the mezzanine floor accommodation. Up until the 1950s the bank let a ground floor shop space out to a tobacconist. The 1960s saw a minor fire which did no real damage but provided minor excitement.

Physical Significance

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: An early example of steel framed building in New Zealand it combines the structural strength of the new material with concrete to enable an impressive structure to be built on an awkwardly shaped site. Turnbull had placed the entranceway at one apex of the parallelogram to the best architectural and commercial advantage, both drawing customers in, and allowing the facades to Manners and Cuba Streets to be uninterrupted nearly-symmetrical essays in the Baroque Style. Turnbull has captured the spirit of the High Edwardian Baroque Revival; using the style of Sir Christopher Wren's St Paul's Cathedral (1675-1711) as his base for the two facades but adapting its features to forms appropriate for a major financial institution, with a great degree of freedom and originality. Thus there is a great order employed to carry the entablature with the legend 'Bank of New Zealand', which along with the high base gives the building monumentality and grandeur. By the time that this building was designed the classical style with variations had been synonymous with bank architecture for almost one hundred years (dating from Cockerell's design for the Bank of England in 1833). Its solidity evokes dignity, stability, security - and these imposing and splendid facades have a great concern for concentrating ornament to give a convincing impression of power and wealth. Some of the ornament that William Turnbull employs is symbolic; for example the lion's head derive from St Mark, patron saint of Venice, the home of commercial enterprise, whilst the garlanded urns are purely decorative baroque devices. Above the segmented window arches are scroll keystones which are linked by festoons to the paired lions' heads whilst the heads themselves are placed on a frieze with meander fretwork. The middle floor window above the entrance is framed by a guilloche and architrave with applied patina - a rich and complex vocabulary of ornament is introduced and deployed in an original way. TOWNSCAPE/LANDMARK SIGNIFICANCE: Has clear links to Thomas Turnbull's Lambton Quay Bank of New Zealand and to William Turnbull's Boulcott houses. The bank building has considerable streetscape significance as it occupies a prominent corner site in what is a major 'node' of the city.