The former Hannah Footwear Factory, now known as the ‘Hannah Factory Apartments, at 14-16 Leeds Street (or 5 Eva Street) was built in 1923 for the boot and shoe manufacturing and retailing business founded by Robert Hannah. The building is part of a significant collection of light commercial/warehouse buildings constructed in the Cuba, Leeds, and Eva Street block – many by R. Hannah & Co.
Robert Hannah (1845-1930) was born in County Antrim, Ireland. He was apprenticed as a boot-maker and immigrated to Australia when he was 18, but soon moved to New Zealand in the early 1860s. The West Coast of the South Island was then in the middle of the gold rush, and Hannah settled in Charleston, collecting enough money to open his first boot-making shop in 1868. In 1873, as gold mining was in decline, he moved to Wellington. Robert Hannah died in 1930, by which time the company had 19 branches in the North Island and 11 in the South Island.
He opened his first shop on Lambton Quay in 1874, its success leading to further branches in Cuba Street in 1879 (along with a factory) and later in Molesworth and Willis Streets. He married Hannah Ferguson (1852-1928) in 1875 and went on to have eight children. Robert was assisted in his business by his younger brother William who arrived in New Zealand in 1879. The company continued to expand and by the late 1890s there were 10 stores in the North Island. The first factory in Wellington was on the top floor of Hannah’s Cuba Street premises, but as the company grew this space soon became too small to be functional. A new factory was built on the land behind the Lambton Quay store and employed 124 people making 3000 pairs of boots, making up about half of the boot trade at the time. By 1908 business was still good, and a combined factory/warehouse was built behind the Cuba Street premises. This building once faced Vivian Street, was built in 1922 for R. Hannah and Co. It was designed by architect H.T. Johns and built by contractors Hansford and Mills. The contract price was £23, 000. The drawings were altered during the planning stage in 1923 to include an extra storey – an indication of the growth and vigour of this well-known shoe manufacturer. The construction consisted of steel columns and beams supporting timber floors with external concrete walls faced with brick laid in an English Bond. Internal timbers for partitions, flooring, and the roof trusses were heart Jarrah, Oregon, Rimu, Matai, and Totara.
The building was converted to mixed-use commercial and residential, to designs by Athfield Architects in 1995-1996. Most notably a new pedestrian walkway was created at ground floor level that connects Eva and Leeds Streets. This pedestrian walkway offers an alternative route between Dixon and Ghuznee Streets and this has increased the ‘foot-traffic’ to local businesses in the surrounding laneways.
