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Statement of Significance

The historic value of Elliott House derives from its origin and long association with Sir James Elliott, a distinguished medical practitioner in Wellington, who lived and ran his surgery in the building. Elliott’s name is well known and respected in the city to this day, partly because of his son, Sir Randell Elliot, who grew up in the house and had a distinguished medical career in his own right. The survival of the building gives an indication of the more domestic character of this part of the city earlier in the century

The aesthetic value of the building is due to its design in an original Georgian revival style. It has a well-ordered facade to Kent Terrace, where the contrast of colour and texture between the brickwork and white painted joinery, the flared roof, and decorative detail makes it a distinctive landmark in an otherwise open and bland thoroughfare. It marks the beginning of a long succession of Georgian-style houses designed by the important architect W. Gray Young. There is technical value in the significant proportion of original structural fabric remaining.

History

This is the second building to occupy this site. The first, a timber dwelling, was erected for Charles Daniell de Castro in 1870, and occupied part of town acre 300. De Castro was the fourth owner of the land; he subdivided his property and in 1886 the first Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church was built directly south of the house site. It was followed in 1896 by a second Presbyterian church designed by Thomas Turnbull. This site is now occupied by a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet

De Castro sold his property to John Truebridge in 1889 who in turn sold it to Annie Dudfield. James Sands Elliott (1880-1959), a surgeon, who from 1903-1910 had lived in the adjoining house, bought the property from Dudfield in 1906. His father was minister at the adjacent Presbyterian church. Elliott rented the house until he was able to buy a portion of section 301 in 1913. This was to be the driveway of a new combined house and surgery that Elliott commissioned architect William Gray Young to design. It was built by Henry Jones and John Cameron. Elliott and his family moved in 1914 and he remained there until his death in 1959 Elliott was one of New Zealand's most celebrated medical practitioners. He came to New Zealand at the age of four and studied medicine at Otago and Edinburgh universities. He married Ann Allan in 1905 and had two daughters and three sons. Elliott served in a medical capacity in two wars (Boer and World War I) and was decorated in both. He was prominent in the fight against cancer and was heavily involved in most of New Zealand's major medical boards and commissions. Knighted in 1936, Elliott was created a Baliff Grand Cross of the Order of St John in 1955, an honour restricted to 10 people outside the Royal Family

After his death his sons (all doctors themselves) sold the house to Rover International. In 1971 it was sold to the Presbyterian Church Property Trustees who rented the house to Belton's Real Estate. By 1988 the house was owned by PrimAcq Holdings who made substantial changes to the building, the alterations being designed by Cockburn Architects and Planners. Today, in a nod to the building’s historic connection to the medical profession, it is occupied by the Australasian College of Anaesthetists.

Description

This residence-surgery was designed by William Gray Young, a prominent, skilled and versatile Wellington architect. A waiting room, office and surgery were situated on the front ground floor, with living quarters behind and above

This is a Georgian Revival house only in the broadest sense. Bill Toomath prefers to call it "William and Mary", describing it as robust and jolly rather than refined. The house is a complete contrast to Victorian or Edwardian overornamentation — calm, cool, undemonstrative. Its sharp rectangular form, and simple but carefully-selected details, were received with surprise and dislike when the building was erected in 1913. It was described as a house of scholarly distinction

The symmetrical street facade has been divided into five "bays", with square-headed twelve-light sash windows on the upper floor, and segmentally-arched windows on the ground floor. The central doorway is marked by a semi-circular pediment above it. The corners have stylized quoins formed by recessing two bricks every fifth course, a novel detail, possibly of Grey Young's own design. The roof has a double-pitched flared form, with wide eaves decorated with timber dentils. The original pitched roof dormer on the centre line of the building was replaced in 1988 with a larger, flat-roofed dormer, maintaining the symmetry but not the delicacy of the original

In 1988 the interior was completely refurbished and new foundations laid, and steel frames were fixed to internal walls

The interior now has little authenticity, with only isolated elements being retained from the original

Construction is load-bearing cavity brickwork (stretcher bond). A reinforced-concrete tie-beam encircles the building at first floor level and at eaves level. The roof was originally clad in clay tiles, but these have been replaced with concrete tiles

The original setting of Elliot House has largely vanished and the building is an isolated survivor, contributing an important and distinctive note to the surrounding streetscape.