Clarrie Gibbons Building

1A Post Office Square, 0 POST OFFICE SQ Te Aro 6001, Jervois Quay

Post Office Square, Te Aro, Wellington
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Image: WCC - Charles Collins, 2015

Image: WCC - Charles Collins, 2015

Image: WCC - Charles Collins, 2016

Image: WCC - Charles Collins, 2015

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  • Constructed

    1912

  • Heritage Area

    Post Office Square

  • Architect(s)

    WCC City Engineer's Department

  • Builder(s)

    Unknown

  • The Clarrie Gibbons Building is a good representative example of the simple utility buildings designed by the WCC City Engineer’s department in the early 20th century. 

    The building is set on a prominent traffic island at the centre of Post Office Square and is a local landmark. It makes a strong positive contribution to the Post Office Square Heritage Area.

    The building has an association with the development of Post Office Square, particularly with the history of the electric tramway service.

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  • close History

    • The Clarrie Gibbons Building was originally designed as a tram shelter. It was built in the centre of Post Office Square, a significant public space set between the central post office and the Wellington waterfront.

      The square occupies land reclaimed between 1857 and 1863, and was the second publicly funded reclamation in Wellington (the first was at lower Willis Street in 1852). The triangular plan of Post Office Square was created in part by the imposition of a street-grid roading plan on the meandering shoreline of the reclaimed land. At the tip of the triangle was Queens Wharf, and a crossroads where several major streets coincided with the entrance to the wharf. The wharf became the dominant influence on the square and remained Wellington’s most important transit hub for many decades. Traffic of all sorts moved through the square and particularly to and from Lambton Quay via Grey Street. The other dominant feature of the square was the Central Post Office that was rebuilt on several occasions from 1863, and the last version of which was demolished in 1974. The site is now occupied by the Hotel Intercontinental / IBM tower (1988).

      Three significant but ultimately temporary features of the square were also installed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Te Aro branch railway ran from the Wellington Railway Station to the bottom of Wakefield Street from 1893 to 1917 and there was a station outside the Wharf Offices. In 1905, a statue of Queen Victoria was erected on the southern side of Post Office Square. It was originally commissioned to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897. In 1911 the statue was moved to the traffic-island between Kent and Cambridge Terraces, as it had become something of a traffic hazard standing on its own in the middle of the busy square. The third temporary feature of the square was the electric tram that arrived in the first decade of the 20th century.

      Construction work for the tram infrastructure began in Wellington in 1902. A London-based firm was contracted to lay the tracks, timber paving blocks, and to erect poles and overhead wires for a fleet of 33 tramcars. The electric tram began running in Wellington in 1904.

      The Clarrie Gibbons’ building is located in the centre of Post Office Square, on an island that may well have been created for the building. The building was built in 1912 originally to serve as, among other things, a tram stop, freight depot and women’s restroom, and at this time, the site it occupied had a footprint not much larger than the building itself. The building was constructed for the sum of £419 by Sanders Bros and was designed by the City Engineer’s Department.

      In 1945 the building was converted into a newsagents and tobacconists and the first occupant was W.B. Mulligan, a returned serviceman, who named his business the “Square Newsagency”, and in 1947 the business was leased to E.L. Mather. The premises were leased to Clarrie Gibbons in 1965 who operated as Clarrie Gibbons Ltd., Newsagents. Clarrie Gibbons (1905 – 1986) was a representative rugby player, coach of Ranfurly Shield winning Wellington rugby teams in the 1950s and 60s, a fine athlete (he won New Zealand’s first marathon in 1939) and a sports administrator.

      When it was first converted into a shop the proximity of the General Post Office and waterfront provided much of the business. The area around Post Office Square has changed a great deal but the shop has survived and remains in use by Clarrie Gibbons Ltd. External signage on the building notes “Clarries Museum” and “Clarries Gallery” and the internal retails space is interspersed with memorabilia, paintings and photographs depicting the history of the building and of Post Office Square.

      The building had few alterations between 1945 and the end of the twentieth century. In 1999 the building was altered to increase the size of the retail space. The original entrance door via the waiting room was removed and replaced by a new door and canopy on the southern elevation, and the women’s restrooms and WCs were removed, and the building was redecorated in heritage paint colours.


    • Modifications close
      • 1857 - 1863
      • Reclamation
      • 1902
      • Electric tramway infrastructure installed
      • 1912
      • Tramway shelter constructed
      • 1945
      • Tramway shelter converted to a newsagent and tobacconists
      • unknown
      • Alterations to the shop; alterations to the existing waiting shed including the removal of the existing entrance doors; addition of a new entrance door and canopy in a “Victorian style”; removal of the women’s rest rooms/WCs; replacement of louvers with fixed glass panels; reinstatement of roof finials; redecoration in heritage paint colours.
    • Occupation History close

      Not assessed

  • close Architectural Information
    • Building Classification(s) close

      Not assessed

    • Architecture close

      Designed by the City Engineer, as one of many public utility buildings in Wellington, this modest building was completed in 1912 to serve as a tram shelter and women’s rest room. The building today is a simple single storey structure built on an L-shaped plan with a pitched clay Marseille tile roof, brick and roughcast stucco walls and steel joinery. The plan is distinctive for its facets at either end of the L, which add interest to the key elevations and the roof line and contribute to the lively architectural character of the building.

      Externally, the building appears little changed from the original; although modifications would have been necessary for its conversion into a retail outlet in 1945, these are not readily apparent. Its utilitarian style, domestic scale and quirky character make it one of the city’s more distinctive buildings and it is a major contributor to the heritage values of Post Office Square.

    • Materials close

      Brick masonry walls

      Concrete floor

      Marseille tile roof

      Timber ceiling joists and roof timbers

      Steel joinery

    • Setting close

      The Clarrie Gibbons Building is situated on a traffic island in the centre of Post Office Square. Post Office Square is not really a square in the conventional sense, but a triangle of land set between at the confluence of several important streets. Nor does it contain a Post Office, as this was demolished in the 1970s.

      While the form of the traffic island has expanded greatly since its inception and the recent use of bricks both as paving for Grey Street and as paving within the island area has blurred its formal edge, it maintains a separate identity. The principal identifying features are the Clarrie Gibbons building, the pohutukawa and recent sculpture installations. There are also two significant Heritage Items on the traffic island that are listed on the WCC Heritage Inventory, these are the telephone box (c.1938) and postal box (dating from between 1879 and 1910).

      Despite the six lanes of traffic along Jervois Quay and the often windswept nature of the area, current WCC surveys indicate that the square is well-used with a level of patronage similar to Midland Park. Traffic-calming measures and pedestrian shelters have been deployed in both Grey Street and Customhouse Quay to help make the island and Queens Wharf more accessible to pedestrians.

      Significant buildings in the Post Office Square Heritage Area are: -

      • Wharf Offices (Shed 7 / Wharf Office Apartments, 1896)
      • Head Office and Bond Store (Museum of Wellington - City and Sea, 1891-92)
      • Shed 11 (1904-05)
      • Shed 13 (1904-05)
      • Clarrie Gibbons Store (and traffic island, 1912)
      • Huddart Parker Building, 2-6 Jervois Quay (1924)
      • Tower Building, 50 – 64 Customhouse Quay (1936)
      • Intercontinental Hotel, 2 Grey Street (1988)
      • Todd Corporation Building, 95 Customhouse Quay, (1987)
      • Chapman Tripp Building, 1-13 Grey Street (1976)

  • close Cultural Value

    The Clarrie Gibbons Building is a good representative example of the simple utility buildings designed by the WCC City Engineer’s department in the early 20th century.

    The building is set on a prominent traffic island at the centre of Post Office Square and is a local landmark. It makes a strong positive contribution to the Post Office Square Heritage Area

    The building has an association with the development of Post Office Square, particularly with the history of the electric tramway service.

    • Aesthetic Value close

      • Architectural

        Does the item have architectural or artistic value for characteristics that may include its design, style, era, form, scale, materials, colour, texture, patina of age, quality of space, craftsmanship, smells, and sounds?

        The Clarrie Gibbons Building is a good representative example of the simple utility buildings designed by the WCC City Engineer’s department in the early 20thC.

      • Group

        Is the item part of a group of buildings, structures, or sites that taken together have coherence because of their age, history, style, scale, materials, or use?

        The building makes a strong positive contribution to the Post Office Square Heritage Area

      • Townscape

        Does the item have townscape value for the part it plays in defining a space or street; providing visual interest; its role as a landmark; or the contribution it makes to the character and sense of place of Wellington?

        The building is set on a prominent traffic island at the centre of Post Office Square and is a local landmark

    • Historic Value close

      • Association

        Is the item associated with an important person, group, or organisation?

        The building has some historic value for its association with Clarrie Gibbons, a local sporting personality. It has a long association with Clarrie Gibbons Ltd that has operated as a newsagent and tobacconist from the premises for nearly 50 years. 

      • Association

        Is the item associated with an important historic event, theme, pattern, phase, or activity?

        The building has a strong association with the development of Post Office Square, particularly with the history of the electric tramway service.

    • Scientific Value close

      • Archaeological

        Does the item have archaeological value for its ability to provide scientific information about past human activity?

        The building is sited on reclaimed land and that has archaeological significance

    • Social Value close

      • Identity Sense Of Place Continuity

        Is the item a focus of community, regional, or national identity? Does the item contribute to sense of place or continuity?

        The building has had few intrusive modern alterations and additions over the past 100 years and contributes to the sense of place and continuity of the Post Office Square Heritage Area.

    • Level of Cultural Heritage Significance close

      • Authentic

        Does the item have authenticity or integrity because it retains significant fabric from the time of its construction or from later periods when important additions or modifications were carried out?

        The building exterior has had few intrusive modern alterations or additions and retains most of its original building fabric

    • Local / Regional / National / International Importance close

      Not assessed

  • close Site Detail

    • District Plan Number

      17/ 159

    • Legal Description

      Legal road

    • Heritage New Zealand Listed

      None 2012

    • Archaeological Site

      Wellington CBD

    • Current Uses

      unknown

    • Former Uses

      unknown

    • Has building been funded

      No

    • Funding Amount

      Not applicable

    • Earthquake Prone Status

      Not Earthquake Prone

  • close Additional Information

Last updated: 10/24/2017 11:04:46 PM