Richmond Lock-up (Former) was built in 1908-1909 as part of the Richmond Police Station on the corner of Wensley Road and Oxford Street and is now located within the nearby Washbourn Gardens. Although relocated, the lock-up retains historical value as an important reminder of the policing history of Richmond and the wider Nelson district.

Te Tau Ihu (Nelson-Marlborough) has a long history of Māori settlement over hundreds of years, reflecting successive waves of migration through to the early 1820s-1830s. The region’s rich and layered Māori history is reflected by the eight recognised iwi – Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Apa and Rangitāne (Kurahaupō tribes), Ngāti Toarangatira, Ngāti Koata and Ngāti Rārua (Tainui tribes), and Ngāti Tama and Te Ātiawa (Taranaki tribes). Colonial land purchases commenced from 1839 and a New Zealand Company Settlement was established at Whakatū (Nelson), with the first immigrant ships arriving in 1842. Richmond was surveyed that same year, and was initially called Waimea East. Traditional Māori society was irrevocably changed by Colonial settlement, which included the imposition of British laws, the associated establishment of the Colonial police (1840-1860) and introduction of imprisonment as a form of punishment. William Stanton served as Richmond’s first District Constable from 1845 to 1854 and the town’s first lock-up was a small mud hut on the corner of Wensley Road and Crescent Street. A new kauri lock-up was erected on the corner of Wensley Road and Oxford Street in 1860. In April 1908 part of Section 26 Waimea East District on the corner of Wensley Road and Oxford Street was permanently reserved ‘as a site for a public pound, police station, etc’ and the Public Works Department made provision for the construction of a new police station alongside the public pound and lock-up, with the latter building to be removed. Tenders were called in August 1908 and the tender of Messrs Bredbury and Bastin of Nelson was accepted, at the price of £700 10 shillings, with the contract completed in February 1909.

The Richmond Police Station was designed by Government Architect John Campbell, though the lock-up plan is signed by George Vesper Venning who worked under Campbell’s aegis from May 1903 to 1913. It comprised a police residence with attached office/station, outbuilding to the rear (housing a washhouse, coal storage and toilet) and two-cell lock-up and with separate toilet. The two-cell lock-up was a standard design which was used across New Zealand in the early 20th century, a time when public buildings such as police stations ‘were being erected with a renewed Vogelite enthusiasm’. It measured 24 feet (7.3 metres) by 12 feet (3.66 metres) and was clad in weatherboards with a corrugated iron roof topped with a Boyles Ventilator. There were air gratings above the timber entrance door and at either end of the building. Each end elevation had a small window and there was a single window along the rear elevation; all were covered by iron bars. Internally, the lock-up comprised two cells measuring 10 feet 11 inches (3.3 metres) by 8 feet five inches (2.6 metres) with a central entry way that had a desk along the rear elevation.

The lock-up was only used occasionally due to the town’s low crime rate – in general ‘the policeman’s lot in Richmond was a happy one’. In 1956 a new police station with cell block was constructed nearby on Queen Street. The former police station on Oxford Street remained in Crown ownership until it transferred into private ownership in 1959. In 1992 the lock-up was relocated to Washbourn Gardens where it was restored by Richmond Rotary in partnership with Tasman District Council. It currently functions as historical attraction for visitors to the gardens.