Heritage Buildings Search - Details

Description

The Taranaki Street Police Station is a concrete and brick building, two storeys high with basement below street level. It was designed by John Campbell, Government Architect, and was built in 1914, opening for use in 1916.

It is a good example of Government architecture of the time, Edwardian Baroque in style, and in some respects a scaled down version of the former Wellington Central Police Station in Waring-Taylor Street. While the parapet has been removed, the exterior of the building is otherwise in authentic condition. It has a rusticated ground floor with five prominent semi-circular headed openings, the right hand one opening through to a yard at the back of the site; this yard had stables, and prison cells in the centre, now demolished in favour of a carpark. The first floor has five square headed window openings, the five bays of the facade divided by giant order pilasters supporting a now reduced cornice. The ground floor is painted plaster while the first floor has exposed natural brickwork; windows are steel-framed.

The building has historic value for its continuous use as a city police station between 1916 and the late 1980s. This value is now somewhat enhanced because the interior of the former Central Police Station building has been gutted

Although presently empty, the building has potential for adaptation and reuse. The scale, design, colours and detail of the building give it strong townscape value in the broad reaches of lower Taranaki Street, complementing other nearby heritage buildings, particulary the adjoining Manthel Motors building. Being sited on or adjacent to the site of Te Aro pa, it is presently the subject of a Maori land claim.