Oriental Bay’s great heritage buildings give us joy and delight in our shared townscape .and history. Fine villas, modernist apartment blocks, early transport hubs, and outstanding buildings used for swimming, boating, and spiritual renewal; they are the richly-worked set for our sunny, positive, community life. The following are recognised under the WCC District Plan and/or by Heritage New Zealand (HNZ).
Wellington Central Fire Station, 2-38 Oriental Parade, is a great representative example of inter-war public building architecture. It is notable for its size and scale and has a symmetrical main facade. The building was designed by Mitchell and Mitchell, and built in 1937. The prominent clock tower, originally donated to the town hall, was shifted to the fire station. (Listed by WCC and HNZ.)
St Gerard’s Church and Monastery are two adjoining buildings, each listed by WCC and HNZ as Category One, forming a landmark image of Wellington above Oriental Bay. The church was designed by John Sidney Swan in 19th century gothic revival style, and was constructed in 1906-10 of brick and plaster with a slate roof. It includes two chapels in each transept and a grand altar made of green Devonshire marble, supported by columns of green Galway and white Italian marble. The front altar panel has Italian mosaics depicting the Annunciation. Hardman & Son of Birmingham made the beautiful stained glass windows.
St Gerard’s monastery provides a unified addition designed by Frederick de Jersey Clere and completed in 1932. Built of concrete and steel with a brick facing, its many-arched frontage is of a collegiate gothic style. The Redemptorist brothers were proud to provide construction work for the unemployed during the depression. The International Programme of Evangelisation now owns the property. [see also ‘St Gerard’s Monastry on Mt Victoria’]
Port Nicholson Clubhouse built in 1943, Coene sheds built in 1942, and the slipway between the sheds. (WCC listed.)
Clyde Quay boat harbour heritage area includes boat sheds 2-13 and 38-49, the first buildings constructed on the newly formed harbour in 1905. The concrete sheds were built as workshops and to house small boats and gear. Shed 1 was built in 1909, and a further 14 sheds with the same appearance added in 1922. In WW II they were used as a base for American troops. (The heritage area is designated in WCC’s District Plan.)
Freyberg pool is an outstanding piece of modernist architecture, completed in 1963. It was designed by Jason Smith and named as a memorial to prominent New Zealander Bernard Freyberg (1889-1963). The striking reinforced concrete building has an asymmetrical butterfly roof, curtain glass walls and clean lines. (Listed by both HNZ – Category One, and WCC.)
Apartment building: 154 Oriental Parade has much of its form and structure intact but has lost its decoration from the front facade. The five-storey building was designed by Atkins and Mitchell and built in 1930. (WCC listed.)
Oriental Bay Historic Area (listed by WCC and HNZ) comprises seven two-storied Edwardian houses at 188-200 Oriental Parade. Built in 1906 by Joshua Charlesworth, a prominent Wellington architect, they have great townscape and visual appeal. Charlesworth built further houses at each end, the largest being his own house (later demolished for Clifton Towers) and the yellow house at 186 Oriental Parade. (WCC listed.)
Central bus shelter built in 1940. (WCC listed.)
Anscombe Apartments, 212 Oriental Parade, including the penthouse residence of its architect Edmund Anscombe, was constructed in 1939. It’s a fine example of the moderne style with rounded corners, generous window areas with window hoods, horizontal fluting and use of sculptural effects reflecting a mastery of Art Deco shape and form. (Listed by WCC and HNZ.) [see also ‘Take a moderne walk in Oriental Bay’]
The house at 234 Oriental Parade is a two-storied, late-Victorian, formal symmetrical villa designed by William Penty and built in 1900. It’s a rare survivor of the fine timber houses which once made up the area. (WCC listed.)
The Band Rotunda was constructed in 1917 as a platform for a relocated band structure. It survived as a popular lookout and community rooms with a restaurant added in 1985. Local resident, Maurice Clarke, is earthquake-strengthening this Parade landmark for WCC. (Congratulations for his recent Wellington Civic Trust heritage award for the beautiful Public Trust Hall.) The rotunda is listed by both WCC and HNZ. [see also ‘Where to now for this iconic site?’]
The Wards (earlier Arcus) house at 240 Oriental Bay is a large relatively ornate Edwardian villa built in 1907-08 on the corner of Hay St, designed by Mace and Nicolson. It retains a mainly-authentic exterior. (Listed by WCC and HNZ.)
The unusual Dutch style house at 294 Oriental Parade was built in 1920. (Listed by WCC and HNZ.)
The house at 298 Oriental Parade is a relatively rare example of English cottage revival style in brick, and is a very distinctive Oriental Bay house. It was built in 1928 for William Kemball, the first owner of the Embassy Theatre. (Listed by WCC.)
The apartment building at 300 Oriental Parade is in Georgian revival style, executed in concrete and red brick, and was built in 1930 for Sir Donald McGavin, one of NZ’s most respected surgeons. (Listed by WCC and HNZ.)
Inverleith Flats, 306 Oriental Parade, is the earliest high-rise luxury apartment block in Oriental Bay, and one of the earliest in the city. It was designed by Frederick de Jersey Clere and Llewellyn E Williams and constructed in 1922. The building’s exterior is plain and was revolutionary for its time, becoming a link to the later Wharenui at 274 Oriental Parade, and the modernist apartment building Jerningham in Oriental Terrace. (Listed by WCC and HNZ.)
The apartment building at 348-352 Oriental Parade is of classical manner integrating provision for motor cars. It was designed by Swan Lawrence Swan and built in 1924-5. (Facade listed by WCC and HNZ.)
The tram shelter near Carlton Gore Rd was built in 1904 at the terminus of the Oriental Bay tram from Courtney Place. By 1911 there were an estimated 22 million passenger tram rides a year in Wellington, and the Oriental Bay tram route provided cheap transport for residents and beach excursionists. (WCC and HNZ listed.)
— Felicity Wong, Bay View Online newsletter, July 2020
(Felicity is Chair of Historic Places Wellington. She drew from David Kernohan’s book Wellington’s Old Buildings and WCC/HNZ sources in preparing this article, and the information may need to be verified.)