Heritage et AL

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.

Originally known as City Park, Western Park in Freeman's Bay is one of Auckland's oldest civic amenities. When Governor William Hobson selected Auckland as the capital of the new colony in 1840, he set aside 75 hectares around an extinct volcano cone as the Auckland Domain. The seat of government moved to Wellington in 1865, but Auckland continued to grow steadily. Ref: NZ Map 4686, the winning entry, Sir George Grey Special Collections In 1873, having decided that the burgeoning populace required another reserve on the western side of town, the city councillors organised a contest with a prize of ten guineas for the best design transforming an eight-hectare site off Ponsonby Road, formerly used as a rubbish dump, into parkland. There were eleven entries. The winning design came from architect and surveyor William Francis Hammond and orchardist and gardener J. C. Blackmore, which can be seen above.

Strike up the band for Albert Park. The band stand was built in 1901 and is the oldest surviving band stand or rotunda in the Auckland region. It was designed by James Slater, who also planned the layout of Albert Park. One of most interesting features of the band stand is its onion-shaped, domed roof. It is made of sheet metal and topped by a pointed finial. Ref: 35-R134, Albert Park showing the band rotunda, 1910-1919, Sir George Grey Special Collections The band stand is a registered category II historic place under the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014 . But it is just one of a number of structures, monuments, artworks, trees and gardens that make this the region’s finest Victorian public park. This is reflected in Albert Park’s category A status as a protected heritage place in the legacy Auckland City District Plan (Central Area Section) (see pp.4-6).