Hibernian Building

Nimmo’s, Nimmo Building, Hibernian Building, Economous Building

89 Willis Street, Te Aro, Wellington
❰ ❱
Photo: Charles Collins, 2015

Photo: WCC - Charles Collins, 2015

Extent: Cityview GIS 2013
Extent: Cityview GIS 2013
December 1929 - Evening Post photograph of the building under construction.
December 1929 - Evening Post photograph of the building under construction. "Evening Post" Photo. NEW BUILDINGS IN WILLIS STREET.—A view of Willis street from the "Evening Post... [truncated], Evening Post, 10 December 1929, Page 9
1929 elevation as proposed, the original drawing shows that four of the Bond Street “windows” were originally filled with cement panels, it also shows the original tower (now demolished). Image: F.D. Stewart WCC Archives ref 00056_B1_B7744
1929 elevation as proposed, the original drawing shows that four of the Bond Street “windows” were originally filled with cement panels, it also shows the original tower (now demolished). Image: F.D. Stewart WCC Archives ref 00056_B1_B7744
1929 ground and first floor plans as proposed, which shows the audition rooms on the ground floor along the Bond Street elevation. The south (right) section of the “L” was designated as office space to let and there is a right of way shown to the south (right) of the ground floor plan. The second floor plan shows more lettable space to the south (right) of the plan, there were some office spaces on this floor along with a large “player piano” room, and a display area.

1929 ground and first floor plans as proposed, which shows the audition rooms on the ground floor along the Bond Street elevation. The south (right) section of the “L” was designated as office space to let and there is a right of way shown to the south (right) of the ground floor plan. The second floor plan shows more lettable space to the south (right) of the plan, there were some office spaces on this floor along with a large “player piano” room, and a display area. (WCC Archives ref 00056_B1_B7744)

1929 second and third floor plans as proposed which shows the second floor was partitioned into large “piano salon’s” and there was a large show room for “old pianos”. The third floor was designated as “space to let”.

1929 second and third floor plans as proposed which shows the second floor was partitioned into large “piano salon’s” and there was a large show room for “old pianos”. The third floor was designated as “space to let”. (WCC Archives ref 00056_B1_B7744)

Map

  • Constructed

    1930 - 1930

  • Architect(s)

    Fletcher Construction Company Ltd / Francis Drummond Stewart

  • Builder(s)

    Fletcher Construction

  • The Hibernian Building is a very good representative example of the Art Deco style, exemplified by the building’s strong vertical emphasis, the polychromatic brickwork and the geometric patterning on the parapet.

    The Hibernian Building was built for Hamilton Nimmo who operated the city’s best known music shop from salesrooms on the ground and first floors from 1930 to 1985. The building was designed and constructed by Fletcher Construction and also has an historic association with this enduringly successful New Zealand construction company.

    The strong vertical emphasis of the building on a small inner-city wedge shaped site, and its colours and textures, give it high townscape value.

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  • close History

    • The Hibernian Building was built for H. Nimmo and Sons in 1930 and for many years was known as Nimmo’s Building. It was built on the corner of Willis and Bond St, the latter a small lane once known as Customhouse Street, which had linked Willis St with the sea before reclamation. It was later called Old Customhouse Street and was widened in 1928-29. As part of this work the previous building on the site, owned by the Wellington Publishing Co., was compulsorily acquired by the Wellington City Council and the land then sold in 1929 to Nimmos, after road widening was completed.

      Hamilton Nimmo (1863-1947) was born in Ayr, Scotland. His father was a composer and piano salesman and his mother a performer. After working for his father he started his own business selling and tuning pianos. In 1906 he and his wife and two sons emigrated to New Zealand. They settled in Wellington and opened a business selling pianos firstly in Kilbirnie and then Kent Terrace, before building the Willis Street premises.  Nimmo was joined in the business by his son Robert Hamilton (circa 1892 - ?) and possibly by his youngest son Alton J. Nimmo.

      The architect, F.D. Stewart, was house architect for Fletcher Construction, the principal contractors. The main building materials, hollow tiles and bricks, were made by the Amalgamated Brick and Tile Co., another Fletcher subsidiary, and the building can be seen as an advertisement for the decorative and construction possibilities of these products. The estimated cost of the building was £24,166 and it was completed in July 1930.

      Nimmo’s business expanded in the 1930s to include the sale of radios, and R.H. Nimmo soon led a group of local businessmen to establish the first private ‘B’ licensed radio station in New Zealand. Wellingtonians could by then tune their radios to 2YA, provided by the semi-public Radio Broadcasting Company of New Zealand that operated a network of radio stations throughout New Zealand, funded by radio dealer’s licence fees and radio receiver licences. But the opening of the new radio station, 2ZW, was a significant local event officiated by the mayor T.C.A. Hislop on the 20th May 1931. Hislop said that the new station was a “credit to the country” as it was equipped with the second most powerful radio equipment in New Zealand and could be heard from North Cape to Bluff. The Evening Post also reported that 2ZW was unique in that it was the first in Wellington to broadcast studio concerts, rather than the mere “records and speech” offered by 2YA. It is interesting to note that 2ZW also broadcast the results of the 1931 elections to “New Zealand and Australia” in conjunction with the nearby Evening Post newspaper.

      The Nimmo’s building on Willis Street was known, for a while, as the home of 2ZW, and Nimmo’s offered the “complete radio service” of broadcasting, sales, service and repair. The well-known radio personality Maud Ruby Basham (1879–1963), better known as Aunt Daisy, worked very briefly as a presenter for the station in 1932, but the station was purchased by the government in September 1933 and closed on 4 December that year.

      Nimmo’s continued to operate as a music shop but by 1938 had expanded to offer a range of records and record players, “Gulbransen Radios, Easy Washers and Westinghouse Refrigerators.” During the build up to WWII Nimmo’s advertised the hours that the radios in the shop would be tuned to receive to the “war news”, partly as advertisement of sets for sale, but partly also as a public service.

      The building has had some major alterations and repairs in the past eighty years including the removal of the small tower over the Willis Street corner of the building. This probably took place after the 1942 earthquake, when damage to the brickwork had to be repaired. There were other alterations to the building interior, including the building of a mezzanine floor within the fourth floor in 1961 and new stairs and partitions in 1966.

      Nimmo’s, which had become a well known Wellington institution, closed in 1985 and the building was sold to the Catholic Hibernian society, who continues to own the building.

    • Modifications close
      • 1930 - 1930
      • Building permit. WCC archives ref 00056:81:B7744
      • 1930 - 1930
      • Verandah. 00056:107:B9837
      • 1942 - 1942
      • Willis Street, reinstate building after earthquake damage 00056:279:B2247289
      • 1961 - 1961
      • Mezzanine floor 00058:195:C8946
      • 1986 - 1986
      • 89 Willis Street, additions and alterations 00059:0: D2123
      • 1990 - 1990
      • Additions and alterations - restaurant SR E21735
    • Occupation History close

      Not assessed

  • close Architectural Information
    • Building Classification(s) close

      Not assessed

    • Architecture close

      The Hibernian Building is a good example of a transitional building whose Art Deco style lies between Victorian and Modernism. The building’s reinforced-concrete structural system is modern, but the polychromatic brick-veneer walls, although unusual in a multi-storey building in Wellington, seem more traditional than innovative. The diagonal corner element of the building has been given a pronounced vertical emphasis in the treatment of the brick piers and the plaster facing work. The parapet above continues this theme, as do the tall windows. Plasterwork on the parapet has covered over the original arrow pattern brickwork that is still in evidence on the lower floors. The facade on Bond Street is more neutral in emphasis, and the piers are balanced by recessed brick spandrels between the windows.

      In plan, the architect has made maximum use of an awkward, though prominent corner site and the wedge-shaped building appears larger than it really is. The ground and first floors were designed as a shop and show rooms for Nimmo’s Pianos and were connected by a central stair. Much original fabric has been removed from the showrooms, although the second-floor office retains some original features such as an ornamental cornice, terracotta tiles on walls, and timber office partitions with leadlight side and top windows.

      The building interior was visited in 1997 as part of the WCC Heritage Building Interiors Project. The interior was assessed as being constructed in a mixture of Art Deco with some Classical elements. The basement was then in original condition, being constructed of brick, with evidence of the original tiled floor above. The ground floor consisted of a café in the front wing, and a ‘conference’ room in the back wing. The conference room has been altered, but the original toilet remained with a tiled floor. The entrance hall had also been relined, and new tile put down on the floor. The stairwell that runs from the basement to the fourth floor had original timber newels and handrail with wrought iron balusters. The newel posts had a simplified Art Deco pattern on them. The first floor retained most of its original elements with the exception of additions made for offices in the front wing. On this floor there was the original linoleum and the indication of the stairs that used to connect the ground floor shop with the first floor level. The Second floor had retained most of its interior elements, including the decorative frieze, and Ionic/Corinthian columns in the back wing. Also original were the timber floors, offices, with timber door and leadlight surrounds. The third floor had been significantly altered with recent interior fitouts, the fourth floor, which used to be the old piano workshop was still, intact, this once was a large open workshop which was (in 1997) used as a design studio.

      The Interior Heritage Inventory team noted that the building is an unusual shape, with two wings at about 135degrees angle. At the centre of the angle are the services, passenger and service lift, and the stairs. The ground and first floors spaces, which were open plan and connected by a central stair, are currently (2012) a café on the ground floor, and offices on the first. The second floor planning consisted of a series of offices along the Bond street wing, enlarged by knocking out adjoining walls, but retained the front of each office along the corridor. The third floor is presumed to have been similar, while the fourth floor was an open plan workshop.

      The building is comprised of part basement with lift machine room and boiler room, ground floor (originally “audition rooms” or piano showrooms), second and third (originally showrooms), fourth and fifth floor offices.

      Note: This architectural description is an updated version of the WCC Heritage Inventory 2001 ref Will3

    • Materials close
      All from the original specification  

      • Reinforced concrete structure
      • “Hollow tile” floor slabs, partition walls
      • External walls – cavity brick / block wall with 4” “Mastertile” facing bricks, 2” cavity, 8” “hollow tile” (presumably concrete block).
      • “Winstone’s” tiled roof on timber roof structure
      • Steel window sashes
      • Cast iron rain water goods
      • Ground floor shop-fronts – stall-boards and piers fitted with Balmoral Red Granite. 
      • Bronze metal shop front window frames continue to be a significant feature of the building (2012). 
      • Timber framed verandah with galvanised stamped zinc soffit lining 
      • Fibrous plaster cornices
      • Marble lined main entrance foyer
      • Ground floor doors – polished “blackwood”
      • Original specification includes a hand powered travelling crane installed on 14lb crane rails. This was installed at high level in the fourth floor workshop. 

    • Setting close

      The former Nimmo’s / Hibernian Building is located at the south end of Willis Street, which along with Lambton Quay forms Wellington’s “golden mile” of retail and corporate office buildings. The building makes good use of its prominent “L” shaped corner site at the intersection of Bond and Willis Streets.

      There is a low rise, modern retail development with little aesthetic value to the north of the Hibernian Building, and a diminutive two storey stripped Classical commercial/retail premises directly to the south. Other nearby buildings on the WCC Heritage Buildings Inventory include the eclectic Jaycee Building (1920) with its unusual mix of Classical motifs, and the Chicago-style Evening Post Building (1928).

  • close Cultural Value

    The Hibernian Building is a very good representative example of the Art Deco style, exemplified by the building’s strong vertical emphasis, the polychromatic brickwork and the geometric patterning on the parapet.

    The Hibernian Building was built for Hamilton Nimmo who operated the city’s best known music shop from salesrooms on the ground and first floors from 1930 to 1985. The building was designed and constructed by Fletcher Construction and also has an historic association with this enduringly successful New Zealand construction company.

    The strong vertical emphasis of the building on a small inner-city wedge shaped site, and its colours and textures, give it high townscape value.

    • Aesthetic Value close

      • 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 Hibernian Building is a very good representative example of the Art Deco style, the strong vertical emphasis, the polychromatic brickwork and the geometric patterning on the parapet being hallmarks of the style.

      • 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 can be read as part of group of buildings constructed at a similar time, to a similar scale and with similar (innovative) building materials. These buildings include the former Evening Post Building (1928) and the Dominion Building (1926-28).

      • 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 strong vertical emphasis of the building on a small inner-city wedge shaped site, and its colours and textures, give it high townscape value.

    • Historic Value close

      • Association

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

        The building has an historic association with the development of the radio broadcasting network in New Zealand.

      • Association

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

        The Hibernian Building was once better known to Wellingtonians as Nimmo’s, as it was built for Hamilton Nimmo who operated the city’s best known music shop from salesrooms on the ground and first floors. The business, which operated from 1930 when the building was completed until 1985, established a reputation for quality and service, and gave an identity to the building that was as distinctive as its architecture. It has historic and social value to the city for these reasons.

        The building was designed and constructed by Fletcher Construction and has an historic association with this enduringly successful New Zealand construction company. 

    • Scientific Value close

      • Archaeological

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

        The building is located in the Central City archaeological site reference NZAA R27/270.

      • Technological

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

        Apart from the removal of a turret over the corner, the exterior of the building is in reasonably authentic condition, while the interior retains significant original fabric, and there is technical interest in its structure and cladding.

    • Social Value close

      • 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 has occupied this key site on Willis Street for over eighty years and, despite some unsympathetic modern alterations, continues to contribute to the sense of place and continuity of the Willis Street commercial / retail precinct.

    • Level of Cultural Heritage Significance close

      • 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 exterior is in reasonably authentic condition, although the original corner “turret” has been removed. There were some early or original interiors when the building was last visited in circa 2000.

    • Local / Regional / National / International Importance close

      Not assessed

  • close Site Detail

    • District Plan Number

      17/ 346

    • Legal Description

      All DP 9267 Pt Lot 1

    • Heritage New Zealand Listed

      Not listed

    • Archaeological Site

      Central City NZAA R27/270

    • Current Uses

      unknown

    • Former Uses

      unknown

    • Has building been funded

      No

    • Funding Amount

      Not applicable

    • Earthquake Prone Status

      124 Notice

  • close Additional Information

Last updated: 7/4/2017 4:30:17 AM