Equitable Building and Investment Co. Building

• 1857 - 1963
• C.R. Carter reclamation to the east side of Lambton Quay
• 1877
• Equitable Building and Investment Co. Ltd (EBI) formed
• 1883
• Original two storied timber building that had been owned by Joe Dransfield and Isaac Phillips was sold to the EBI
• 1887
• The EBI constructed a new masonry building on the site
• 1904 - 1905
• Addition of the 2nd floor (designed by G Schwartz) for the EBI
• 1921
• Further alterations designed by Schwartz for the new owner Myer Berman (a tobacconist)
• 1952
• The building was noted as a Historic Building by the WCC and all permit applications were sent to the City Planner
• 1958
• Purchased by J.H. Poy for use by the United Fruit Co. as a shop
• 1962
• Alterations to the shop
• 1987
• Purchased by Renouf Property Investments Ltd
• 1988
• Stewart Dawson’s, Fletchers and Poy’s/United Fruit Co. buildings and site amalgamated onto one property title by the investment company Lambton Quay no.366.
• 1997
• Extensive refurbishment with the substantial loss of older building fabric

Not assessed

Not assessed

The Equitable Building and Investment Co. building is a commercial building designed in a Classical style that is sympathetic in scale and detail to the neighbouring Stewart Dawson’s building. The building is three storeys in height, with a comparatively narrow street frontage. The construction is load-bearing brick masonry on concrete foundations and piles, although the early newspaper reports suggest that the building may be faced in Oamaru stone (now concealed by paint coatings). Floor and ceiling members are timber and the roof is clad in corrugated iron.

The building has a carefully designed and detailed rendered (or possibly painted Oamaru stone) façade with a simple but elegant Classical composition that is divided into three vertical bays, each with round-headed windows, with the emphasis on the central bay where the windows are paired. The first floor features Corinthian motifs in the pilasters and mouldings, and is notable for the scallop infill panels to the heads of the deeply-recessed arched windows. The second floor is more plainly dressed in a Tuscan order. Prominent string course lines delineate the principal floor levels and the building is capped with a simple Doric entablature springing off a small but prominent cornice supported on consoles and which has a simple arched pediment in the centre, topped with an acanthus-motif acroterion and backed up by a simple horizontal parapet. The roof-line is concealed behind the parapet.

Beneath the modern suspended flat verandah, some of the original building fabric remains at street level but little remains behind the façade.

Possible Oamaru stone facings on street elevation

Brick masonry

Timber floors and roof structure

Corrugated iron (or mild steel) roof

Lambton Quay has developed over time to become Wellington City CBD’s “golden mile” of retail and commercial office buildings where banks, department stores and company head offices have traditionally built their highest quality buildings. This area has a high pedestrian ‘foot-count’ and is the key inner city retail shopping precinct. The street is characterised by the mix of modern office buildings and older heritage buildings, and many of the (modern) office buildings on the west side of Lambton Quay also have a street frontage or access to The Terrace commercial/office precinct. The heritage buildings make a fine contribution to a, sometimes bland, modern streetscape along Lambton Quay.

The Equitable Building and Investment Co. Building is part of a small group of late Victorian / Edwardian Buildings that includes 360 Lambton Quay, the Stewart Dawson Building at 366 Lambton and the Fletcher’s building at 2-4 Willis Street. These buildings have been known collectively as Stewart Dawson’s Corner (SR 16509) since 1996 when the buildings were redeveloped, although Stewart Dawson jewellers are only associated with the building at 360 Lambton Quay. The Victorian / Edwardian precinct around the corner of Willis Street, Lambton Quay and Customhouse Quay also includes the group of fine Edwardian BNZ buildings on the opposite side of Lambton Quay from Stewart Dawson’s corner.

The Stewart Dawson’s corner buildings conceal the cliff face of Clay Point, an early Wellington landmark, and most of the flat land in the immediate vicinity of Clay Point was reclaimed by C.R Carter in 1857 – 63. Lambton Quay is an early road that marks the original extent of the flat land above the high water mark on the Port Nicholson foreshore, and in the early years of European settlement houses, shops and warehouses lined the western side of Lambton Quay, with the sea and beach to the east. The earthquakes of 1848 and 1855 led to the early settler’s preference for timber construction, but the city’s many major fires in the later years of the nineteenth century saw the popularity of (fire resistant) brick and masonry buildings increase. The WCC Old Shoreline Heritage Trail notes that “by the 1920s, this street [Lambton Quay] had some of the city’s finest buildings in an unbroken Victorian/ Edwardian streetscape.”

• 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 building at 360 Lambton Quay is the oldest commercial building on Lambton Quay and one of the oldest masonry buildings remaining in Wellington. The building has a carefully designed and detailed rendered (or possibly painted Oamaru stone) façade in a simple but elegant Classical composition of building elements and is sympathetic in scale and detail to the neighbouring Stewart Dawson’s building.

• 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 is part of a group three of late Victorian / Edwardian buildings that are of a consistent scale and degree of ornamentation, and that effectively ‘turn-the-corner’ between Lambton Quay and Willis Street. The building façade makes a strong positive contribution to the BNZ /Head Office 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 part of a group of three late Victorian / Edwardian buildings that are now thought of collectively as Stewart Dawson’s corner (although only the central building has a historic association with the jeweller). Stewart Dawson’s corner is a prominent landmark that marks the key intersection between Willis and Lambton Quay in Wellington’s CBD.

• Association

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

  The building has significant historic value as the oldest commercial building on Lambton Quay. 
  
  The building has some historic value for its association with Wellington’s Chinese community – although further research is required.

• Association

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

  The building has some historic value for its association with the Equitable Building and Investment Co. a now obscure but once successful early local investment company.

Not assessed

• 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 façade has remained (relatively) unaltered for over 100 years and makes a strong positive contribution to the sense of place and continuity of the BNZ /Head Office Heritage Area.

• 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 façade has had relatively few intrusive modern alterations and retains substantial areas of original building fabric.

• Rare

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

  The building is a rare surviving example of a Victorian masonry building in Wellington’s CBD.

• Representative

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

  The building façade is a good representative example of a Victorian commercial building.

Not assessed

• Photographic Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library.
• Land Titles Office, CT 29/199 and Land Titles Office, CT 43/148.
• Wises Street Directories 1900-1910
• Jessie Munro, Letters on the Go: The Correspondence of Suzanne Aubert, Bridget Williams Books, 2010
• WCC Building Permit File, Poy’s Building, 360 Lambton Quay
• RIBA Directory of British Architects 1834-1914: L-Z By Antonia Brodie, British Architectural Library, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001
• Michael Kelly, 2 Footscray Ave report 17/04/07.
• WCC Heritage Building Inventory 2001 ref Lamb 16
• WCC Old Shoreline Heritage Trail 1996 (2nd ed. 2005)
• Websites
• RNZIH webpage accessed July 2012
• The Nursery and Garden Industry of New Zealand Website accessed July 2012
• WCC Heritage Buildings Search California Garden Centre Miramar accessed June 2012
• WCC website accessed June 2012
• Newspaper articles
• The Equitable Building Society's Permanent Offices. Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 192, 31 December 1886, Page 3;
• DEATH. Evening Post, Volume XLV, Issue 149, 27 June 1893, Page 2;
• PERSONAL MATTERS. Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 4, 5 January 1907, Page 5
• PERSONAL MATTERS. Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 123, 25 May 1926, Page 9
• OBITUARY. Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 108, 9 May 1932, Page 9
• Hardworking businessman with charisma, DomPost, 26/05/2012.
• Advertisement in The Spike or Victoria University College Review September 1925, published by the Victoria University Students Association. September 1925;

• Inventory Report
• 1921 drawings

Not available