This building at 5 Tory Street was constructed for the New Zealand Acetylene Gas Lighting Company as their office, showroom and store. It was altered in c.2000 with the additional two-storeys. It is now occupied by a café at ground floor level with apartments above.
5 Tory Street is part of the Courtenay Place Heritage Area – a part of Wellington that has experience major social change over the past 150 years. The nearby Te Aro pa was one of the largest in the Wellington area, occupied over two hectares, and housed up to 200 people at its peak in the 1850s. This area to the east of the pa was characterised by wetlands and was a valuable source of flax, and a habitat for birds, fish and eels.
Although part of the New Zealand Company’s planned settlement, it was slow to be formed. Much of the area was originally covered by an extensive swamp which remained unsuitable for building until raised and drained by the 1855 earthquake. Building commenced during the 1860s but the area was never well regarded during the 19th century. It was dominated by the backdrop of the Tory Street gasworks and the housing – particularly around Grainger (later Blair and Allen Streets) – was poor, if not outright slum-like. Things began to improve when the tram service was inaugurated in 1878 and more particularly when the electric service began in 1904.
The transformation of the old housing area into Wellington’s fruit and vegetable market in the early 20th century also changed the appearance of the area. There were many other uses of the streets of course, with importers and exporters using the area for warehousing. At the same time, the arrival of picture theatres, coffee lounges, restaurants and better shops in the following decades further reinforced the area’s transformation and Courtenay Place became known for the quality of its shopping. At the end of the 20th century, the departure of the markets and the influx of restaurants, cafés and nightclubs, small businesses and apartments, again revived the area, but at a cost to the heritage fabric of some of the buildings and the absolute authenticity of some of the key streetscapes.
This building was purpose built for the New Zealand Acetylene Gas Lighting Company, a Dunedin based gas producer that was established in the 1880s to promote the use of acetylene as an alternative to coal gas for domestic lighting. Electric lighting had been available in Wellington since 1889, but places further afield relied on gas, such as the Paekakariki Hotel (also built by Crichton and McKay in 1909) continued to be designed to be lit by acetylene. The architects of this building at 5 Tory Street were Crichton and McKay, the builder E. S. Knight of Marion Street, and the estimated cost £4,500. The permit was dated July 1917.
The building has been somewhat altered over the past 90 years. The parapet was replaced in 1936 – a typical Wellington response to the 1931 Hawkes Bay earthquake. The building was increased in height with a two-storey addition in c.2000. The ground floor entrances appear to have swapped at about this time as up until 1995 the garage entrance was via the southernmost bay, and the apartment entrance was via the north.
The building is currently occupied by Joe’s Garage café on the ground floor, and residential apartments above.
