Hislop and Walden

Hislop and Walden was a Dunedin based practice which built a number of Wellington buildings.

James Hislop (1859-1904) was born in Glasgow and came to New Zealand at a very early age. He was educated at North East Valley School and received his architectural training in the office of Mason and Wales. He also spent two years with the Public Works Department, as district manager of Nelson. In 1880 he entered into business with W.H. Terry who retired three years later. He established his own practice in Dunedin and later entered into a partnership with Edward Walter Walden. In 1889 Hislop designed and supervised the erection of the South Seas Exhibition among a number of prominent buildings both in Otago and elsewhere in the country.

Edward Walter Walden (1870 -1944) was born in Dunedin and educated at Otago Boys’ High School. He began his architectural career articled to Hislop and later, during the 1890s, became a partner in the firm of Hislop and Walden. He moved to Wellington temporarily in c.1901, but appears to have returned to Dunedin when Hislop moved to Wellington in c.1902. When Hislop died in 1904, Walden took over the firm. In 1905 Walden was the Otago representative at the first NZIA conference in Nelson and, in 1907, he was associated with a building firm known as Walden and Barton.

Among the significant buildings designed by James Hislop, or by the Hislop and Walden partnership are Crown Milling Co. building, Miller Place, Dunedin (c.1880); New Zealand Steam Shipping Co. office, Dunedin; DIC, Christchurch; Evans and Co. Mill, Timaru; National Bank, George Street, Dunedin; Napier Abattoirs (1902); Hallenstein Building, The Octagon; Dunedin City Abattoirs.

Sources:

Architects File, Auckland School of Architecture

Knight, H. & Wales, N. 1988, Buildings of Dunedin - an illustrated architectural guide to New Zealand’s Victorian City, John McIndoe Ltd, Dunedin

Mew, Geoff & Adrian Humphris. “Raupo to Deco: Wellington Styles and Architects 1840 – 1940” (Wellington: Steel Roberts Aotearoa, 2014) 

WCC Heritage Inventory 2001