Why is this place significant?

Why is this place Category 1 / Category 2?

In 1884, G.H. Roach opened a drapery between the Hastings Hotel and Market Street. Roach, born in London, was educated in Birmingham. On completing his education he returned to London and after working with the drapery firm of Shoolbread and Co. he went to Australia in 1857. He moved to Dunedin in 1862, where he married Hannah O'Connell. The couple moved to Christchurch and then on to Wellington before eventually settling in Hawkes Bay. In 1886 Roach opened premises in a store on the corner of Heretaunga Street West and King Street. It comprised, among other things, a grocery, ironmongery, glassware and crockery. This part of the business was taken over by his son George F. Roach in 1900 and then in 1904 Roach snr. retired. George and his brother Victor carried on the two arms of the business as Roach Brothers, until George bought Victor out. In 1909, a two storied brick building designed by Christchurch architect Sydney Lutterell was built on the site of the previous building and the two businesses were combined under the one roof. When George F. Roach successfully ran for Mayor of Hastings in 1929, his son Gordon took over the business. During the early 1920s, James Wattie was an accountant for Roachs'. The Hawkes Bay earthquake of 1931 had a devastating effect on the 1909 building. 'The front of the building rose in the air' before the structure collapsed in a heap...'. There were about 50 people in the store at the time and 17 of them died, the largest number of fatalities in a single building, many of them customers and employees. One was a boy who had gone to buy a school cap. The company, not having held earthquake insurance, found itself insolvent after the earthquake. A new company (Roachs' (1931) Limited) was quickly formed and in April 1931 they opened three temporary stores, one on the site of the original Roachs' building, one in Warren Street and one opposite Grays Road. This allowed Roachs' to keep trading until a more permanent building was erected. George F. Roach, now Mayor, suggested that when landowners on Heretaunga Street rebuilt they set their building five feet further back to allow the street to be widened. Roachs' temporary Heretaunga Street store was set back accordingly. The proposed scheme was eventually dropped after vocal opposition from some of the landowners in Heretaunga Street. In 1934, Roachs' temporary premises were replaced with the present building, a strikingly modern design by Davies and Phillips. The Moderne style of the building was somewhat different from other Davies and Phillips buildings of the same period which were mainly Stripped Classical (Ebbetts Building and Karamu Chambers) or Art Deco in style. It was built at a cost of ₤12,498 by Charles S Palmer, financed with the aid of a loan from the Rehabilitation Committee. Post-earthquake, Roachs', like a number of other shops, had suffered from burglaries. Since the 1890s shopkeepers had employed a night-watchman, who, along with the policeman, had keys to the retailers' premises, including Roachs'. A suspicious George Roach, who had lost as much as ₤5,000 over the five years since the earthquake, noticed the disappearance of a small pair of men's shoes and then, later, how small the night-watchman's feet were. He stayed overnight in his shop and caught the night-watchman and the on-duty policemen red handed. The ensuing scandal led to the removal or resignation of other policemen. Other retailers presented Roach with a clock as a mark of appreciation. Over the period of its history, Roachs' had developed into a fully fledged department store, carrying a large range of products and becoming one of the Hastings' best known retailing landmarks. This tradition continued on in the new building, but file information from the Hastings District Council suggests that in 1958, in a response to changing retailing fashions, Roachs' converted their building into a shopping arcade. However, no permit records have been located to confirm this change, nor the extent of any alterations required. Roachs' continued on until 1979, when the company sold the building to David Winter and Glynn Pointon for the business Winter Pointon Fashions (later Hilary Pointon Fashions). In 1981, the building was converted into the Westpoint Plaza Shopping Centre. The first recorded alteration to the building came in 1962, when there were changes to the shop display areas. Since Westpoint Plaza was established there have been a number of building alterations. The building was re-roofed in the mid-1980s, along with undergoing major changes to internal partitions, counters and displays. In 1994 a new canopy and frontage were built and there were further internal alterations in 1999. Two shops were fitted out in 2000 and a canopy was reinstated in 2003. The main occupier when the building was converted into the Westpoint Plaza was Hillary Pointon Fashions. Among other occupants since the Plaza's establishment have been Moy's Jewellers, Jo Jo's Restaurant, Spex Eyewear, J.A. Simons Ltd, Sophies and Arthur Toye. Hillary Pointon Fashions remains in the building today, though TSB Bank now occupies the prominent corner site it once occupied.

The former Roachs' Building is a single storey building with a large floor plate, on the corner of Heretaunga and King Streets. It is a dramatic building on this prominent site, because of the circular first floor room on the corner and the very long parapet that extends along both street elevations; this gives the building a spread out, horizontal form. Although the corner room is very prominent, it is not a tower, because it does not rise significantly above the level of the parapet; it does however build on the horizontals of the main composition because of its very narrow band of windows and strong circular banding of the roof parapet above. There is further horizontal emphasis in the glazing above the verandah, and in the verandah fascia that sweeps in a bold curve around the corner. The style is Moderne, the building being free of period details, and relying for its impact on strong horizontal, streamlined and curved shapes. The building is also unusual in having a concrete roof, at least over the front (Heretaunga Street) half of the building; the roof structure of the rear part is timber and steel trusses. The original drawings show most of the floor in use as 'drapery and showroom', with a grocery department occupying the eastern end of the Heretaunga Street elevation, and with a cluster of offices, stores, a dressmaking room and service spaces behind (see Appendix 5). The circular room above the corner of the building was accessed via a door from the roof; its purpose is not known. The building has seen a number of alterations over time; these include a redesign of the shop frontage, and a new roof over the front half of the building. Other visible external elements maintain a high degree of authenticity. UPDATE: (Based on site visit Imelda Bargas, March 2008) The interior of the building has been cleared of any original fixtures or fittings. At the time of the site visit the rear of the building was being reconfigured with a view to attracting new tenants.

Information Sources

Other Information

A fully referenced Registration Report is available from the NZHPT Central Region office Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rarangi Korero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions.