Heritage et AL

34 sketches in New Zealand for Mr Charles Abraham. Ref: Caroline Abraham, Sketchbook, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 3-111. Mrs Caroline Harriet Abraham is chiefly remembered as a recorder of the early colonial New Zealand landscape. Her cousin was the wife of Bishop Selwyn and she herself married Selwyn’s good friend Mr Charles Abraham. During the first half of their New Zealand residence, the Abrahams lived mainly at St John’s College where Charles was Principal. They moved south in 1859 when he was made inaugural bishop of Wellington. Ref:  Carolin e Abraham, Sketchbook, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 3-111.

Sculptures, murals and statues are dotted around Auckland with information about many of these public artworks available on Auckland Council’s Art and Heritage Database . A display on level 2 at the Central Library showcases some of these items, from Fatu Feu’u’s Aotea Centre mural to Greer Twiss’s Pigeon Park sculpture. Statues and monuments from the Auckland Domain are featured including the Pukekaroa Palisade where Princess Te Puea planted a tōtara tree during the city’s 1940 centennial celebrations in order to reaffirm the mana of the Tainui people in the area, and the connection between her family and the Domain. Her great-grandfather Te Wherowhero had lived in two houses on the Domain site between 1847-1858 before returning to the Waikato as the Māori King. Ref: Pukekaroa Palisade, 2016.

The Housing NZ flats at 115-139 Grey Avenue (known as the Upper Greys Ave flats) are going to undergo a much needed makeover. The land behind the flats, which is currently being used as a car park, will  be sold off. The other state housing flats nearby at 95-113 Grey Ave (known as the Lower Greys Ave Flats) were upgraded 5 years ago and will also remain in state hands.   Ref: Greys Ave showing the two Housing NZ flats, Auckland Council GIS Viewer, March 2014 Prior to the building of both of these blocks of flats, the area around Greys Avenue or Grey Street as it was known them, was home to a Chinese community. It was regarded by some (including the government) as a ‘slum' and  in 1941, the Labour government, with financial backing from the council, started to clear the area, which  made way for the building of both sets of flats. Ref: 580-2234, architectural model of the multi-storey state flats in Greys Ave 1956-1957, Sir George Grey Special Collections ...