Historic Significance

Historical Significance or Value Blackett's Building was erected as the head office for the South British Insurance Company formed by prominent Auckland businessmen, including Captain Daldy and William Morrin. It soon became a major fire and marine insurance company with offices and agencies throughout the British Empire. Fires were a hazard amongst the predominantly wooden buildings of early Auckland. Buildings would display a plate bearing the name of their insurance company so that the fire brigades from the rival insurance companies knew which fire to fight. Forming an insurance company was a risky venture to undertake as insurance companies were, by law, not permitted to be limited liability companies. The South British Insurance began issuing fire insurance policies only and the company lent money for mortgages as an investment. High risk areas such as the gold mining towns were not covered. New Zealand was dependent on shipping links, both within territorial waters and internationally. By 1874 the company had offices in London and were underwriting such shipping lines as the Union Steamship Company. The site, known as Sommervilles Corner after a previous grocer's shop, was in the heart of the early commercial area. The land was owned by J C Blackett, the son of an English baronet who established a scholarship trust as a memorial to his deceased wife, Maria Blackett. The trustees of Saint John's College leased the land to the South British Insurance Company in 1878 for a 60 year term to provide revenue for the scholarship. The design was selected by competition and the new head offices were completed by October 1879. The company had expanded rapidly since its inception in 1872 and the leased premises at 29 Queen Street had proved inadequate. By the late 1920s, however, Blackett's Building, despite the additions, had become inadequate for the growing company and an additional building was commissioned further along Shortland Street. The freehold title to the land was finally acquired in 1969. The South British Company has been associated with Auckland's development for over 100 years and is now part of the NZI group.

Physical Significance

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: Blackett's Building is one of the finest examples in Auckland of commercial architecture from the second half of last century. It is also one of very few buildings of this period left in Auckland and the only remaining example of Richard Keal's work in the central city. There are now less than nine buildings in Queen Street that are over one hundred years old. Blackett's Building is one of them. The design was chosen from the work of four architects who had been asked to submit designs and clearly reflects Victorian concepts about commercial building. In the Victorian era Italianate styles were widely used to create a sense of grandeur and security by evoking associations with the merchant princes of Venice. The ornamentation of Blackett's Building also provides an example of the use of plant motifs which were widely used in the second half of the nineteenth century. This style is important not only because it reflects trends in commercial architecture in Europe but because it is especially ornate for its date of construction in Auckland. Timber had only recently been phased out as the primary building material, and the few stone and brick buildings there were in Queen Street were generally of a much simpler nature. Blackett's Building was built as the Head Office of the South British Insurance Company and was one of Auckland's first highly ornamented buildings. The construction of such a permanent and ornate building reflected a growing feeling of optimism in the future of New Zealand. The use of decorative plasterwork is significant evidence of a craft which has all but been lost. It was a highly skilled craft whose practitioners would have been trained in the British Isles. The architects did not draw the decoration fully but left this to the craftsmen who were familiar with all the motifs and made the gelatine moulds. Little evidence remains of this craft in Auckland and the craftsmen themselves have tended to remain anonymous. The work could not be produced to the same standard today. TOWNSCAPE/LANDMARK SIGNIFICANCE: Blackett's Building defines the corner of two of Auckland's major streets in a bold and decorative manner. It has stood on this site for one hundred and nine years and provides this city with some sense of permanence.