Huddart Parker Building

• 1857 - 1863
• Reclamation
• c.1865
• Pier Hotel constructed
• c.1888
• Queen’s Chambers constructed
• 1889
• Pier Hotel moved to the corner of Customhouse Quay and Grey Street
• 1893
• Huddart Parker occupied offices in Queen’s Chambers
• 1925
• Huddart Parker Building opened
• 1941
• Fruit-grower’s Charitable Trust moved into the building
• 1961
• Huddart Parker Ltd sold to Bitumen and Oil Refineries of Australia Limited
• 1963 - 1964
• Weather-clock constructed on the roof (C15146)
• 2005
• Fruitgrower’s Charitable Trust accumulated 100% of ownership of the building.
• 2012
• Fruitgrower’s Charitable Trust accumulated 100% of ownership of the building.

Not assessed

Not assessed

The Huddart Parker building is a good example of what has become known as the Chicago style. The design follows Louis Sullivan’s dictum that a building should have a base, trunk and be properly capped. The two-storey base, comprising the ground and first floors, is quite traditional in design. Heavily rusticated, it has a balustraded hood over the main entrance, a plain entablature, and small balconies supported by consoles at second-floor level in the centre and at both ends of the building. A plain cornice separates this base from the four-storey shaft above.

The shaft is more transitional in appearance. Plain and unadorned, with a regular hierarchy of single, paired or triple windows, the shaft exploits the new steel-frame technology that allowed a greater ratio of window to wall area. A horizontal emphasis is present on the facade, balancing the vertical, and giving a sense of proportion and harmony to the building.

A pronounced cornice divides the shaft from the building’s seventh-floor “crown”. This crown is capped by a dentilled cornice and a shallow stepped parapet. Balconies repeat the design and placement of those on the third floor.

The building is sparely ornamented, with most of its feature deriving from the composition of the key architectural elements – the rusticated base, strong pattern of windows and the small balconies and prominent cornice lines. This gives the building an elegant formal quality.

The most important façade is that to Grey Street which contains the main entrance to the building. The central three bays of the façade are brought forward of the two corner bays and the entrance is given additional prominence with an overhanging balcony at the second floor level. The exterior of the building remains largely unaltered.

Reinforced concrete piles, structural frame, piers, columns, beams, floor and roof slabs.

Timber ceiling joists with fibrous plaster ceilings

The original drawings are faint, but the external walls appear to be constructed in reinforced concrete, and the floors to the WCs directly behind the main stair appear to be constructed with timber joists & flooring.

Internal walls – reinforced concrete walls to stair, elevator, WCs and strong-rooms. Coke filled “patent coke breeze blocks” for all other partitions

Entrance vestibule – marble cladding

Post Office Square heritage area is a significant and popular urban open space of over 100 years standing surrounded by a group of important former harbour board and commercial buildings. The area is named for the former General Post Office (GPO), which occupied the site of the present-day Hotel Intercontinental and IBM Tower on Customhouse Quay from 1863 to 1974.

The heritage area is not really a square in the conventional sense but it is an open, definable space at the confluence of a number of important streets, and is closely related to the establishment and use of the waterfront by the former Wellington Harbour Board (WHB). In particular, the square was, and is, the key point of access to Queens Wharf, Wellington’s most historically important wharf.

The square was created partly by 19th century additions to the original 1857-63 reclamation which gave room to construct buildings on the eastern side of the square and accommodate traffic and even, for a period, a railway. A statue of Queen Victoria was placed there in 1906 (and later removed in 1911), while the island was formed in 1912 to accommodate the tram shelter that later became Clarrie Gibbons. The island has grown considerably in extent since then. With a couple of notable exceptions, the square has undergone only incremental change since the early 20th century and, as a result, it has maintained its basic configuration and essential characteristics. It is, despite the presence of modern buildings on the edges, still recognisably the same place it was 100 years ago.

Post Office Square is a place of high heritage value and importance to Wellington and contains a number of significant heritage buildings. It is a place very familiar to many Wellingtonians and is passed daily by thousands of people, in cars or on foot.

The Post Office Square heritage area is principally an open space defined by a number of significant heritage buildings. The area includes all the buildings bounding the square – on Grey Street and Customhouse and Jervois Quays, as well as Sheds 11 and 13 to the immediate north and the nearby Wharf Offices and Bond Store buildings. The boundary follows the property lines of the key buildings surrounding the square and extends across Jervois Quay to pick up the four former WHB buildings. With one exception, all the buildings within the area boundary contribute to the formation and qualities of the square.

Wharf Offices (Shed 7 / Wharf Office Apartments, 1896)
Head Office and Bond Store (Museum of Wellington - City and Sea, 1891-92)
Shed 11 (1904-05)
Shed 13 (1904-05)
Clarrie Gibbons Store (and traffic island, 1912)
Huddart Parker Building, 2-6 Jervois Quay (1924)
Tower Building, 50 – 64 Customhouse Quay (1936)
Intercontinental Hotel, 2 Grey Street (1988)
Todd Corporation Building, 95 Customhouse Quay, (1987)
Chapman Tripp Building, 1-13 Grey Street (1976)

There are a number of other features within the square and on its margins that can be considered part of the heritage area, many of which contribute to its values, including the Queens Wharf gates (1899), a heritage telephone box (c.1938) and a heritage postal box (dating from between 1879 and 1910).

• 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 is a very bold and competent example of Chicago-style architecture.

• 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 of significant heritage buildings that form the Post Office Square 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 situated on a prominent corner site at a corner of Post Office Square and Jervois Quay and has a strong street presence particularly when viewed from the north. Its rooftop has long been occupied by signage, historically by an illuminated clock and weather forecast, presently by an advertisement for a local radio station and a temperature display. This signage takes advantage of the prominence of the building, particularly for passing traffic along the key transport route of Customhouse and Jervois Quays.

• Association

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

  The building retains the name of Huddart Parker, a large trans-Tasman shipping company and is historically significant for being the last of the shipping industry buildings still standing alongside the waterfront.

  The building was designed by Crighton, McKay and Haughton, a prominent and longstanding Wellington architectural practice.

• Association

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

  The building is associated with the nineteenth and twentieth century shipping industry.

• Archaeological

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

  Central City NZAA R27/270

• 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 80 years and makes a strong positive contribution to the sense of place and continuity of the BNZ /Head Office Heritage Area.

• Sentiment Connection

  Is the item a focus of community sentiment and connection?

  The building once held community sentiment and connection for the temperature display and clock that was a prominent feature on the roof. This has somewhat diminished since the removal of the display.

• 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 has had few intrusive modern alterations and additions and retains much of the authentic building fabric.

Not assessed

• Alexander Turnbull Library
• Evening Post. “Weather on the Skyline” 5/2/1963
• Kernohan, D. and Kellaway, T. 1994 Wellington’s Old Buildings. VUW Press, Wellington
• Schouton Hank. ‘Wellington’s Huddart Building Getting New Lease’. Dominion Post 19 May 2012.
• The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District] 1897
• WCC Heritage Building Inventory 2001 ref Jerv1
• WCC Post Office Square Heritage Area report for DPC 48
• WCC Archives
• Websites
• Bulleyment Fortune website accessed July 2012
• Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (DNZB) database entries for individuals are available from
• Flotilla Australia Website accessed July 2012
• Friends of the Botanic Gardens Website accessed July 2012
• NZHPT Professional Biographies accessed May 2012
• Marklin-users website accessed July 2012
• The Ship’s List website accessed July 2012
• Wassilieff. Maggy. 'Astronomy – overview', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 24-Sep-11
• Wikipedia, accessed July 2012

• Inventory Report
• 1924 drawings

Not available