This building facade is named for Thomas Ballinger (1852-1929), who was born in London and immigrated with his family to Victoria in the mid 1850s. From there the family moved to New Zealand, firstly Invercargill, then Dunedin and finally Wellington. His father, was a plumber and Thomas took up his father’s trade. In 1877 Thomas founded a plumbing business in Ghuznee Street, but the following year he purchased the stock and plant of W.H. Bragge and opened as a house and ship’s plumber and coppersmith on Willis Street. His business expanded and by 1885 he was able to supply or manufacture a wide range of plumbing and roofing supplies that were exhibited at the Wellington Exhibition. He was also a member of the Wellington City Council (from 1905 to 1911), associated with the first Wellington Exhibition of 1885, was a member, and the first captain, of the “Wellington Volunteer Fire Police” and a vestry member of St. Peter’s Church.
The land on which the building is sited was created as part of the 1874 Te Aro Reclamation within the 70 acres reserved for “The Mayor, Councillors and Citizens of the City of Wellington”. It was only the second section of land sold by the “Corporation” when lot 20 of plan 331 was purchased in 1886 by Edward Pearce, and this possibly indicates the date by which this area of the reclamation was complete. Pearce almost immediately subdivided the land and sold half to Mary Kennedy, wife of Greymouth mining inspector, Martin Kennedy, and half to Ballinger. Ballinger purchased Kennedy’s part of the subdivision along with a mortgage from Mrs Kennedy, but is likely to have defaulted on the mortgage as the land was returned to Mary Kennedy by the Supreme Court. He later re-purchased the land in 1897.
In 1897 the company was listed in the Cyclopedia of New Zealand as…
“Thomas Ballinger and Co., Ltd (Thomas Ballinger, Managing Director; D. M. Fuller, Secretary), Sanitary Plumbers, Gasfitters, Electric Light Installers and Fitters, Electric and other Bellfitters, Coppersmiths and Manufacturers of Spouting, Ridging, Down-Piping and every description of Sheet Metal Goods, Lead-Headed Nails and Fine Corrugated Iron; Empire Spouting and Ridging Manufactory and Curving Works, 33 Victoria Street, Wellington. Telegraphic address, “Thomas Ballinger, Wellington.”
And the Cyclopedia went on to note that the premises at Victoria Street were sixty feet by eighty feet with a floor area of 8000 square feet over two stories. The building functioned as a warehouse on the first floor with a factory on the ground floor. There was a travelling crane and a three cylinder steam engine powered various machinery that produced spouting and ridging, corrugated iron, and lead headed nails. The factory also tinned and galvanised metal products. The range of products at Thomas Ballinger and Co. Ltd were similar to those offered by a rival plumbing and plumber’s manufacturing and importing business established by Thomas Ballinger’s brothers William and Arthur Ballinger at the corner of Waring Taylor and Maginnity Streets.
Thomas Ballinger may have designed the c.1903 building on the Victoria Street site of his original factory and warehouse, as his signature is evident on all of the surviving drawings and no other architect or engineer is associated with the design. The new building was used as head office for Thomas Ballinger and Co. Ltd. and housed a warehouse and shop on the ground floor, with machinery and equipment associated with Ballinger’s business housed on the upper floors.
The building was fully occupied by Thomas Ballinger and Co. Ltd until about 1924 when parts of the building were let to various tenants. Thomas Ballinger and Co. Ltd sold the building in 1971 to the Prudential Assurance Company Limited of Wellington, and the company of Thomas Ballinger and Co Ltd was finally dissolved in 2004.
The site passed through various ownerships until it was purchased in 1994 by the Wellington City Council and became part of the Willis Bond & Co. Chews Lane Precinct development. The WCC commissioned a report in 2003 to reconsider the building’s heritage listing on the District Plan. The building was considered to be significant as the last of a group of late Victorian and Edwardian city warehoused that were once common on Victoria Street. The building’s design style, and scale were thought to make a significant contribution to the Victoria Street streetscape, and the building was considered to be an important link with Wellington’s commercial activities. In 2007 the building was partially demolished and only the Victoria Street façade was retained as the street frontage to a new seven storey building. The site is currently let on a 250 year lease.
