Auckland Council District Plan (North Shore Section) Proposed Plan Change 38 Proposed New Item Appendix 11A: Schedule of Buildings, Objects and Places of Heritage Significance Name: Highbury Building Address: 14-20 Mokoia Road, Highbury, Birkenhead ID: 531 Category: B Use: Commercial DP Map: 24 Material 1: Condition: Cultural Heritage: Material 2: Integrity: Streetscape: Construction Dates From: 1934 To: Alteration Dates: Legal Description: Lot 42 DP 145 Zoning: Business 2 Architect/Designer/Contractor: Unknown Architectural Style: This is a simple 1930s retail building with a plastered masonry facade which is divided into five bays which step down Mokoia Road. The parapet of each bay features a framed panel. The original suspended verandahs also step down in front of each bay. Shop fronts are framed with pilasters clad in a stone finish. Reference Source:
CTs 56/143; 95/228 Highbury Centre Plan, North Shore City Council [undated] NZHPT Listing: Not registered by the NZHPT. Significant Elements: Suspended veranda, five-bay step-down façade with name and date of building on parapet, clerestory windows above veranda, shop front cladding in Summerhill stone or similar [possible 1960s remodelling?] Extent of Listing: Entire exterior of building. History: The site of the Highbury Buildings was once part of a large farm, most of which was owned by William Francis Hammond in 1885. In that year, he subdivided his holdings in Allotment 156. 1 It is likely that the site immediately to the west of the Highbury Building is that of the original general store at Highbury operated by Samuel Roberts from c.1904. Title for this property was issued to Charles John Lindberg in 1899. The site was later owned by Henry Medland Shepherd, sharebroker [1906], who came to live at Birkdale c.1894, but later moved to Highbury. 2 When he died in 1927, his property at 2-20 Mokoia Road was offered to the Birkenhead Borough Council as a site for a Town Hall, but amid local opposition and failure to gain Government approval, the offer lapsed. 3 Birkenhead resident George Warth remembered that the site was suggested as a suitable location for a town hall by Mr Jasper: Mr Jasper would point to the corner of Mokoia and Rawene Roads and say that the Council should buy this property. The property extended to where the Yarntons shop is today. Mr Jasper foresaw a hall built above shops. A complex of Town Hall, shops and offices. 4 Instead, one part of Shepherd s property was taken by the Crown in 1929 (20-20A Mokoia Road) as the site of a future post office, 5 while the rest was sold off to other buyers. The architect and builder of the Highbury Building are unknown, but it is thought that W H Payne, Highbury land agent who also had the block from 1-5 Mokoia Road built in 1928, was behind this development. At the opening of the first Highbury branch of 1 DP 415. LINZ records 2 Obituary, Auckland Star, 28 July 1927 3 Auckland Star, 16 August 1928, p. 7 4 George Warth, notes, Back Then, Vol 2 p. 121 5 DP 25227, LINZ records
the post office in 1935, 6 Payne was credited with having had the foresight to see the possibilities of the locality as a business centre. 7 By 1939 the building was the location for stationer Charles Neads, a branch of the Blue & White stores, the Highbury Post Office, a draper named J H Clark and an upholsterer named William G. Markham. 8 By 1949, draper J S Yarnton took up business in part of the block. 9 In 1966, the shops were modernised, 10 and by the early 1970s, most of the block had been redeveloped internally to become a large store for J S Yarnton Ltd. 11 Yarnton s Menswear still occupy part of the building(2008). Statement of Significance Architecture: Highbury Building is typical of many single level retail buildings built in the 1930s in a plain stripped classical style, and contributes to an understanding of when the commercial hub in Highbury was developed. The division into bays and stepping of parapets and verandahs creates an appealing edge to this part of the street. History: The building provides evidence of early commercial development in Highbury in the late 1920s and early 1930s, when larger allotments were subdivided and developed for shops and offices. The building has a long association with Yarnton s drapers and menswear business which has been located here since the late 1940s. The building is important in representing themes in the historic development of Birkenhead including Commercial and Public Architecture and Retail and Commerce. Context: The repeated parapets and verandahs of the building which step down Mokoia Road create interest in this part of the centre. The building contributes to an understanding of the development of the commercial centre in the 1930s. The building remains largely intact and appears is reasonable condition. 6 Auckland Star, 4 June 1935, p. 8 7 Auckland Star, 4 June 1935, p. 8 8 Wises Directory 1940-1941, p. 259 9 Wises Directory, 1950-1951, p. 116a 10 North Shore Advertiser, 14 June 1966, includes photo 11 Wises Directory, 1975, p. S194
PHOTOGRAPH Mokoia Road, showing main intersection with Hinemoa Street and Birkenhead Ave in 1946. The photo shows the prominence of the few early commercial buildings in Highbury including Highbury Building (just right of centre) which at this time was still surrounded by houses and a vacant site adjacent in Mokoia Road and Birkenhead Ave. Image No 110644, North Shore City Archives.