Heritage et AL

Images: 151 Queen Street, The New Zealand Herald, 2014.  The 1980s were a time of transformation in New Zealand, marked by economic liberalisation, corporate excess, and a cultural shift that redefined the country’s identity ‘from the world’s first welfare state to the world’s first post-welfare state’.  The fourth Labour government instituted sweeping reforms known as Rogernomics. Spearheaded by Minister of Finance Roger Douglas, this involved deregulation, privatisation, and the removal of subsidies which reshaped the economy and heralded a new era of market-driven growth.  Amid this backdrop, urban landscapes evolved to reflect the changing times. Auckland’s Central Business District (CBD) became a playground for corporate ambition, with new skyscrapers symbolising power and modernity. This research series examines how the evolution of built heritage sheds light on social and cultural changes. It does so primarily by following the lives of three Queen Street locations:...

In 1913 Arthur Myers , M.P., and former Mayor of Auckland gifted the city £9000 for the purchase of a gully in central Auckland with the intent to turn it into a park for the people of Auckland. Ref: Auckland Weekly News, The giver in his gift, 9 October 1913, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19131009-48-5.

Known also as ‘panoramic’ or ‘perspective’ maps, bird's-eye views of cities became popular in many parts of the world during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The idea was to depict street patterns, prominent buildings and other landscape features as if viewed from above at an oblique angle. Sometimes the artists had recourse to hot-air balloons. More often, as was probably the case with this rendition of Auckland, they were reliant on observations made while trudging the city streets and the vistas available from taller buildings. Ref: NZ Map 374, bird's-eye view of Auckland City, 1886, Sir George Grey Special Collections   The inscription on the lower left corner reads: ‘This view is compiled and drawn as from a point one thousand feet above and one hundred feet to the rear of the hospital during the year 1885 and part of 1886, by George Treacy Stevens'. Little is known about the artist. He might be the ‘George Stevens’ buried in Karori Cemetery, Wellingto...