Star Boating Club

Not assessed

Not assessed

Not assessed

The Star Boating Club is a simple rectangular building of two stories, with a plain balcony on the first floor facing the lagoon. The design is straightforward and unpretentious, with a subtle yet distinct nautical flavour. The roof consists of two long paired gables, with a central small gable in the middle of each long elevation. Each gable is capped with a finial and the projecting eaves are studded with wooden brackets. The gable form is echoed in the boat-shed doorways on the ground floor. The rhythm of these openings is a simple and effective one.

The Star Boating Club building was purpose built to be relocated as harbour reclamation occurred. It was built on skids to facilitate easy relocation by steam engine.

The Star Boating Club is of architectural significance. It is the work of prominent Wellington architect, and club member, William Chatfield who showed an astute grasp of the requirements for its design so that it continues to be suited to its purpose after a significant length of time. The building has value for its unique design as a boatshed and pavilion. It combines nautical themes and a lively and picturesque view with a structure devoted to the particular needs of its users. The ultimately vital design-to-move structure through the use of skids is a specific design solution that showed an understanding of future pressures. The large open ground floor interior of structural timber is practical and spare but has the appealing patina of long use. The Star Boating Club has value for its exterior design. Despite being essentially a large shed, the building is striking for its rhythm and symmetry in the pattern of doors and windows. These features, along with its gables and balconies, were designed to give an eye-catching appeal of a domestic scale and allow the large shed to dazzle or impress.

The construction is timber, with rusticated weatherboards and a corrugated iron roof. Timbers used in the construction include kauri, heart matai and other indigenous heart timbers.

The Star Boating Club Building occupies a prominent place on the Wellington waterfront. This building, along with the neighbouring Wellington Rowing Club, have strong associations for Wellingtonians and provide a visible reminder of Wellington's long standing connections with the harbour. The distinctive Star Boating Club Building and its decorative features contribute greatly to the streetscape in the surrounding area and is a defining building of the harbour coastline.

• 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 Star Boating Club is a fine example of a Victorian boating clubhouse. It is one of only a few purpose-built boating club buildings in New Zealand to have survived into the 21st century, and the only one that remains in its original use.

• 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 has group value for its association with other heritage buildings, particularly the Wellington Rowing Club Building, and also including Odlin’s and the Wellington Free Ambulance Building.

• 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, along with the neighbouring Wellington Rowing Club, forms an important element in the Wellington waterfront alongside Frank Kitts Park.

• Association

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

  The club is the oldest sporting club in Wellington, and one of the oldest sporting clubs in New Zealand. It is also the third oldest rowing club in New Zealand. Rowing was a popular sport and the club was once likely to have been the largest athletic club in the Southern Hemisphere.

  During the First and Second World Wars the building also played an important role in the community, becoming the base for a number of groups such as the St. Johns Ambulance Brigade, the Red Cross and various patriotic committees. 

• Association

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

  The Star Boating Club Building is of outstanding historical significance for several reasons. The club has operated continuously since 1866 and has been associated with this building since it was purpose built for the club in 1886.

  It has also had a significant association with the Downstage Theatre, New Zealand's longest running professional theatre company. While operating out the Star Boating Club a large number of notable New Zealand actors performed for Downstage.

• Archaeological

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

  Reclamation

• Technological

  Does the item have technological value for its innovative or important construction methods or use of materials?

  The Star Boating Club building is of technological significance as it was purpose built to be relocated as harbour reclamation occurred. It was built on skids to facilitate easy relocation and was relocated by steam engine only three years after its original construction. It is likely to be the only building in Wellington designed to be relocated in this way, and it is probable that is the only building in New Zealand to have been transported in this way. When the building was relocated for a second time, in 1989, the skids were replaced by a new foundation. Although the skids have been replaced, the building retains its technological value for the foresight and practicality of this design feature.

• 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?

  Despite many alterations, and its removal to a new site in the early 1990s, the building has been a key element on Wellington’s waterfront for over 120 years and contributes to the sense of place and continuity of the waterfront recreational precinct.

• Public Esteem

  Is the item held in high public esteem?

  The building is likely to be held in high public esteem as it is an attractive, picturesque building set within the recreational zone of the Wellington Waterfront.

• Sentiment/Connection

  Is the item a focus of community sentiment and connection?

  The Star Boating Club building is of social significance as the clubrooms for the Star Boating Club. Club members have included prominent New Zealanders such as Lord Freyberg and Olympic athlete George Cooke. In addition to this the building is also significant as it has been the venue for prominent cultural events, such as the International Festival of Arts, the Fringe Festival and the 1999 and 2000 NZ TV2 Laugh Festival. The building is also of value for its use to the community, having been used by numerous other clubs and community groups since the First World War. It continues to be used as a popular venue for weddings and other events and was also the venue for one of NZ's first Civil Unions immediately following adoption of the Civil Union Bill by Parliament, at which the Mayor of Wellington was the celebrant.

• 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?

  Despite being relocated several times and renovated, this building retains a high level of authenticity.

• Rare

  Is the item rare, unique, unusual, seminal, influential, or outstanding?

  The Star Boating Club Building is rare in that it is one of the only boatsheds of its age that continues to be used by its founding club, and as such is part of New Zealand's sporting heritage.

  Along with its companion, the Wellington Rowing Club, this building is a notably rare central city timber building.

• Importance

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

  The building is nationally significant due to its rarity.

Not assessed

• Cyclopedia Co. Ltd, “Chatfield, William Charles,” in The Cyclopedia of New Zealand: Wellington Provincial District (Wellington: The Cyclopedia Company Limited, 1897), accessed January 28, 2013
• “District Plan: Heritage building – Star Boating Club & Wellington Rowing Club”, 1999, 1041-06-STA Vol. 1, Wellington City Council Records.
• Historic Places Trust, “Chatfield, William Charles”, Professional Biographies, accessed January 28 2013,
• Searle, Chloe, and Alison Dangerfield, Star Boating Club Building, Historic Places Trust website, 2009,
• Wellington City Council, “Taranaki Street Wharf: Star Boating Club,” Wellington Heritage Building Inventory 2001: Non-Residential Buildings. (Wellington City Council, 2001), TARAW2.
• Wellington City Council, “Appendix III”, Wellington Heritage Building Inventory 2001: Non-Residential Buildings. (Wellington City Council, 2001).

• Inventory Report

Not available