Commercial Building

• 1931
• Original Construction
• 1957
• Alterations – reinstatement
• 1966
• Additions and alterations, Additions and alterations
• 1986
• Additions and alterations
• 1992
• Additions and alterations – restaurant fit-out
• 1998
• Additions and alterations – shop fit-out
• 2004
• Seismic strengthening of building
• 2009
• Building additions/alterations – Commercial, new accessible toilet, change swing door, new doors to rear store rooms, remove front windows and replace with bifold doors, window to disabled toilet.

• 1939 - 1966
• Halls Shoe Company
• 1971 - 1972
• – Multiple Tenants: First floor – The Coachman restaurant First floor – The Coachman restaurant (first floor Stevenson’s footwear, The Take Away Food Shop, Food Bar.
• 1990
• Cathy’s Takeaways and Jazz Lunch Bar
• 2013
• Café Baba, CGR Café Baba, CGR (Coffee, Gin, Rum Merchants and Co.

Not assessed

This diminutive building at 46 Courtenay Place is a unique element in the streetscape, and is one of the few Art Deco influenced buildings in the Courtenay Place Heritage Area.

The street elevation features a distinctive crenellated parapet that is reminiscent of a Spanish Mission style. The tall, arched windows are particularly unusual, and feature an embossed ‘sunburst-motif’ that fills the arch above the window head. The original windows, with their decorative arrangement of glazing bars that divide the casements into square and rectangular panes, are also noteworthy.

The exterior wall, above the verandah, is coated in a roughcast render, with smooth render within the recessed window arches and on the panel under the window.

The verandah and ground floor shop fronts are intrusive modern replacements.

Visible materials include concrete foundations, brick walls, steel roof trusses, stucco finishing, and terracotta half round pipes.

The diminutive two-storey Art Deco building at 46 Courtenay Place is bounded to the west by the fine, four-storey, Art Deco style Newport Chambers, and to the east by the pleasant and well scaled four-storey, modern, glass curtain-wall clad BNZ.

This section of Courtenay Place is characterised by its continuous line of buildings between Cambridge Terrace and Tory Street which emphasise the original survey line. The buildings are diverse in nature and age but, despite some particularly intrusive modern buildings, have a high streetscape quality which contributes significantly to the heritage value and character of Courtenay Place as a whole.

• 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?

  46 Courtenay Place is a pleasant Art Deco style building. Although the shop-fronts and verandah have been much-altered, the façade above verandah level is in near original condition. The building makes a positive contribution to the Courtenay Place 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?

  This building has townscape value for the contribution that it makes to the character of Courtenay Place. It is coherent with the overall nature of Courtenay Place as a heritage area.

• Association

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

  The Building was once home to The Coachman, a fine-dining restautant owned by (Father) Des Britton - food writer, TV presenter and later head of the Wellington City Mission

• Association

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

  This building is associated with the early social and economic history of Wellington, helping to tell the story of Wellington’s development. The building, while originally a retail premises, has for nearly a decade housed restaurants and cafes. This is an important element of Courtenay Place’s development as the entertainment district
  

• Archaeological

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

  This building is included in the NZAA Central City Archaeological area R27/270.

• 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 (above verandah level) has had few alterations over the past 80+ years and contributes to the sense of place and continuity of Courtenay Place.

• PublicEsteem

  Is the item held in high public esteem?

  This building has housed restaurants and bars for a number of years as a part of the commercial development of Courtenay Place into the entertainment area of Wellington. For this reason, this building is well liked by Wellingtonians in an important historic area. It retains its social and economic use values.

• 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?

  This building retains some authenticity of materials, design and craftsmanship for the external façade above verandah level.

• Local

  Is the item important for any of the above characteristics at a local, regional, national, or international level?

  This building is important at a local level for the contribution that it makes to the Courtenay Place heritage area. It is a lively composition and in a reasonably authentic condition. 

• Representative

  Is the item a good example of the class it represents?

  This building is a representative of a small scale commercial building from the 1930s. Its value is somewhat diminished by the installation of a modern replacement verandah and shop-fronts.

Not assessed

• Wellington City Council, “46 Courtenay Place,” Wellington Heritage Building Inventory 1995: Non-Residential Buildings. Wellington City Council, 1995.
• Wellington City Council. Courtenay Place Heritage Area spreadsheet (Part 2). Wellington City Council: Unpublished report, prepared for Plan Change 48, 2006.
• Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 135, 5 December 1939, Page 3
• Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 37, 13 February 1945, Page 3
• WCA 00056-88-B9693
• Townsend & Paul's wholesale fish market, Wellington. Smith, Sydney Charles, 1888-1972 :Photographs of New Zealand. Ref: 1/2-047903-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand

• Inventory Report
• 1930 plans

Not available