Wellington Trades Hall

124-128 Vivian Street, Te Aro, Wellington 6011

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Wellington Trades Hall on Vivian Street, one of Wellington’s main arterial routes, was designed by noted Wellington architect William Fielding (1875-1946) and opened in 1929. It has outstanding historical significance for its connections with the union movement in Aotearoa New Zealand, with the lives of ordinary working people and well-known union figures, organisations like the Labour Party and Federation of Labour, and major events such as the 1951 waterfront dispute. The place’s identification with unionism was tragically demonstrated in 1984, when it became the site of the country’s first fatal terrorist attack. While an unsolved crime, it was clearly a calculated strike at the movement. As a home for unions since it opened, Wellington Trades Hall has special social significance as a place of great importance to the union community past and present and considerable efforts have been made to ensure its preservation. The Wellington Trades and Labour Council started looking for a site on which to build a trades hall in 1901 but progress was slow. The property on Vivian Street was purchased in 1918 and the large house built in 1890 by Dr Albert Martin was used as a trades hall for a decade. Demand for office and meeting space outstripped supply and in 1927 William Fielding designed a neo-Classical three-storey office building on the street front connected by a bridge to an assembly hall in the middle and a printing works at the rear. The assembly hall and printing works buildings opened in 1928 and the office building, the current Wellington Trades Hall, in 1929. The reinforced concrete office building was largely neo-Classical in style but a shift to Stripped Classical was evident in the limited use of ornamentation restricted to the main street-facing elevation. The main decorative feature was the central entrance, a double-door and half-round transom window set in a semi-circular arch with a rusticated finish, with the first floor window styled as an aedicule immediately above. A modest caretaker’s cottage was placed on the roof. The interior was distinguished by a central atrium with a glass roof. Almost all the unions in Wellington moved into the office building and it was the headquarters of the Labour Party national office until 1939 and the Federation of Labour until the early 1970s. It was the place where the day-to-day business to improve the lives of ordinary working people was conducted by unions, as well as the organising of major events. Since at least the 1970s, unions were joined by social justice, peace and environmental organisations and voluntary groups and small businesses. In 1958 the central atrium was enclosed to make more office space and the assembly hall was demolished in 1988. The exterior of Wellington Trades Hall looks much as it did when the building opened in 1929.

Wellington Trades Hall, Wellington | Kerryn Pollock | 27/08/2020 | Heritage New Zealand
Wellington Trades Hall, Wellington. West elevation. Caretaker's cottage can be seen on the roof top | Kerryn Pollock | 27/08/2020 | Heritage New Zealand
Wellington Trades Hall, Wellington. SMS cage lift in the lobby | Kerryn Pollock | 27/08/2020 | Heritage New Zealand
Wellington Trades Hall, Wellington. Waterside workers outside Wellington Trades Hall in Vivian Street, Wellington. Alexander Turnbull Library Ref: 1/2-084855-G | 12/05/1932 | Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington

Location

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List Entry Information

Overview

Detailed List Entry

Status

Listed

List Entry Status

Historic Place Category 1

Access

Private/No Public Access

List Number

9618

Date Entered

2nd February 2021

Date of Effect

3rd March 2021

City/District Council

Wellington City

Region

Wellington Region

Extent of List Entry

Extent includes the land described as Lot 2 DP 492559 (RT 723732), Wellington Land District and the building known as Wellington Trades Hall thereon, and the following chattels: certificate, bench, carved chair.

Legal description

Lot 2 DP 492559 (RT 723732), Wellington Land District

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