The Newmarket Heritage walk takes you on a circular route which encompasses most of the heritage buildings in the locality.

Amid the spectacular new developments of the last decade or so, a surprising number of important heritage buildings survive. Every decade between the 1850s and the 1960s (except one, 1910-1920), is represented along the Heritage Walk.

Please enjoy your saunter through Newmarket's history.

(Guided walks run from September to April)

For further details please contact: 
Parnell Trust
t 09 555 5164  f 09 379 2091
Jubilee Building, 545 Parnell Road
PO Box 37 682, Parnell, Auckland
community@parnell.org.nz 
www.parnell.org.nz
Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/parnelltrust

The Olympic Pool               

The Olympic Pool was completed in 1939. The plans for the Olympic Pool in the Art Deco style were drawn up by the New market Borough Engineer of the time, N.F. Alcock. In recent years a cinema complex has been built above the pool but the original Art Deco entrance on Broadway remains. The pool was a major achievement for a borough as small as Newmarket. For some years, it was the best swimming pool in Auckland and the British Empire Games swimming events were held at the pool in 1950.

Walk south to Newmarket Centre.

Lumsden Green

Lumsden Green has been named after David Lumsden, the Mayor of Newmarket at the time the borough was amalgamated with Auckland City in 1989. The Green occupies the southern part of a triangle of land which had been put aside as a reserve in 1878. The sculpture by Auckland artist Marte Szirmay was placed on the Green in 1969 to mark the Centenary of the Newmarket Highway diastrict.

Turn right to south western corner of Lumsden Green.

Former Sneddon & Mcleod Drapery Building

THIS IS ONE OF THE FEW Edwardian commercial buildings remaining in Newmarket. It was built about 1908. Although it has lost its ornamental parapet, the building ratains its double-hung sash windows with decorative hood mouldings, and other plaster detailing.

Carlton Club

This handsome 1880's hotel, the last of several notable 19th century hotels to survive in Newmarket, is a major landmark. It still has its ornamental balustrade-style parapet and decorative pediments above its doors and windows.

Walk along Khyber pass road and cross Osbourne Street.

George Kent & Sons

George Kent, Mayor of Newmarket 1891-1893, established his bakery in Newmarket in 1871. the firm built this office building in the early 1920's. It was designed by the well-known architects Arnold & Abbot, who also designed Auckland Grammar School . Note the use of different colour bricks to create ornamental patterns.

Next door.

Khyber House

This old Victorian wooden commercial building is a lonely survivor in Newmarket from the 19th Century. It was probably built between 1880 and 1890.

Next Door.

Excelsior Building

This brick building, like the Kent & Sons building at the other end of the block, was designed by the architectural firm of Arnolpd and Abbott. It was constructed in about 1920. Note the ornamental use of darker bricks on the pediments above the windows.

Return back along Khyber Pass and enter Osborne Street.

Oliver's Arcade

This was originally the old Kent Bakery Building, built in 1906. It was converted into an arcade in the 1980's. Kents, established in 1871, at first delivered their bread in horse-drawn vehicles. By the 1930's, however, they had a fleet of twenty motor delivery vans.

Continue to Teed St and turn right up to Seccombes Rd.

Old Newmarket Manual Training School

Manual, technical and commercial training in New Zealand schools received a boost House.jpgfrom the government in about 1900. This fine old educational building was erected in 1903 on the Broadway end of the original Newmarket school site, one of several built in Auckland around that time. It was shifted to its current site in 1925 after the old Newmarket school building burnt down and the new school was shifted to another site.

Return down and turn right up Gillies Ave.

Newmarket School Terraces

Volcanic Rock has always been used for construction purposes in Newmarket. At first scoria rocks were cleared from the surface of the landscape and used for walls and for building foundations. Later, basalt was quarried from the area and used to construct buildings as well as structures such as these old school terraces, built during the depression.

Cross road and continue up to 40 Gillies Ave.

Highwic

Highwic is one of Auckland's most notable historic houses. It is operated by the  Zealand Historical Places Trust and is open to the public, as well as being available for functions. Highwic was built circa 1863 by Alfred Buckland, the well known 19th Century businessman and stock and station agent. At one stage, Buckland was one of the largest landowners in the Auckland province. The design of the house, in the Carpenter Gothic style, was taken from an American pattern book.

Walk through grounds, down Mortimer Pass and along Balm St.

Mercury Building

The Auckland Electric Power Board commissioned architects Llew Piper to design this building, now owned by Westfield New Zealand. The building, whose streamlined curves make it a striking visual landmark, was erected in in 1951. The upper floor, designed by architect J.I. Van Pels, was added in 1964.

Turn left into Remuera Rd, and walk along to corner on Broadway.

Corner Building

This building was constructed in 1929. Like the Mercury building, it has a curving façade unusual for it's time.

Across the road. 

Smith & Caughey Building

The old Auckland firm of Smith & Caughey, whose main department store and offices occupy a handsome building in central Auckland, erected this Newmarket Branch in the mid 1880's. At first it operated under the name of Hugh Gilmore, the brother-in-law of A.C Caughey. In 1917, the name reverted to Smith & Caughey.

Continue north along Broadway.

The Rialto

Auckland's first cinema for moving pictures opened in 1908. By 1911, movies were being screened in the first purpose built Newmarket cinema, the Broadway Theatre, which closed during the 1920's. The Rialto was opened in 1925. It was designed in the Art-Deco style by the well-known architect Keith Draffin, who also designed the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Across the road.

Municipal Building

Newmarket's first municipal offices were in the old town hall, a wooden structure built about 1876 and situated in what was then Manukau Rd and is now Broadway (the name changed in 1915). The upper floor of the building was occupied by the Salvation Army. New borough municipal offices, incorporating a library, hall & Shops, were erected in 1924/25 on the same site. This Municipal Chambers building was demolished June 2002.

Return back down Broadway.

1920's Facade

The buildings along the eastern side of Broadway, opposite the Rialto and Smith & Caughey's, were mostly built in the 1920's and 1930's on former railways land. they are of a simpler, less ornate design that the few Victorian buildings which survive in Newmarket today, but still display a distinctive use of modest pediments and restrained ornamentation.

Take walkway past public toilets to Railway Bridge.

Newmarket Railway Station

The railway station building was one of four "island" style stations in Auckland (that is with rails passing on either side), designed and built by George Troup, Chief Engineer for the NZ Railways Department. Newmarket Station was built in 1908, at the time of the installation of double tracks. The signal box further along the platform was built at the same time and is one of the few of that era in New Zealand still remaining on it's original site and still in operation.

Continue through Broadway Park Housing complex to Endevour Park and on into Ayr St. and Parnell Rd.

Newmarket Park

The park was developed on an old tip site in the 1930's and 1940's. It was originally known as Sarawia Reserve, then as the Olympic Stadium. It was used as a venue for athletics and soccer for many years until ground subsidence forced it's closure. It is now being developed as a public park.

Across the Road.

Ewelme Cottage 14 Ayr St

Auckland City Category A

Registered NZHPT Category I

A house museum, owned by Auckland City and operated by the Historical Places Trust. Built in 1863 for Vicesimus Lush who possibly prepared his plans plans in conjunction with an architect before emigrating from England in 1850. Though Vicar of Howick, Lush chose to build in Ayr St. so that his sons could attend the Church of England Grammar School. His family lived there till 1968.

Further up on the corner of Ayr St. and Parnell Rd. 

Kinder House

Auckland City Category A

Owned by Auckland City, this two-storyed stone house was designed by Frederick Thatcher in 1857. It was built by the stonemason, Benjamin Strange, as the headmasters house for the Church of England Grammar School, and named for it's first and most distinguished occupant, Dr Kinder, also a well known water colourist and pioneer photograhper.

Cross diagonally to Domain Drive.

Auckland Domain

The Auckland Domain was created in 1840 and was Auckland's first park. It contains many features of interest including the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the Wintergarden and fernery, several statues, walkways, many species of trees, a fine 19th century grandstand, duck ponds and sports fields.

The Domain occupies a volcanic a volcanic landscape, containing one large crater. The land also has strong Maori associations and contains two pa sites, Pukekaroa and Waikohanga. The hill on which the Museum stands is known as Pukekawa or 'hill of bitter tears', also formerly known as Observatory Hill.

Auckland War Memorial Museum

Auckland City Category A

Auckland's grandest landmark building is the Museum, which stands in the domain. The Original Auckland Museum was established in 1852, in a small cottage on the corner of Symonds St and Grafton Rd in the central city. The first purpose-built museum, a brick building, was constructed in 1876 in Princes St. after World War I, a stie on Observatory Hill in the Auckland Domain was leased from the Auckland City Council, by the Auckland Museum Institute. Public funds were raised, together with donations from the Auckland City Council, government and other sources, to erect a museum and a cenotaph on the site as a memorial to those who had died the Great War. A design competition was held and won by three young architects, Hugh Grierson, Kenneth Aimer and Keith Draffin, with the drawings prepared by Draffin.

Return back through the Domain to Titoki St. 

Jubilee Institute for the Blind

Auckland City Category B

The New Zealand Jubilee Institute for the Blind was founded in 1890 by John Abbott, Merchant, who came to New Zealand in 1864. The Institute school had originally been established in an old boarding house in Parnell in 1889. A more permanent school was built in 1891 with money from a mayoralty fund set up to celebrate the Jubilee of Queen Victoria, resulting in the name "Jubilee Institute". This building burnt down in 1897. Between 1907 and 1909, handsome new brick buildings were built for the Institute,designed by well-known architect Edward Bartley and built by W.Philcox and Sons. Additions in 1926 designed by Gummer and Ford provided for adult accommodation, a shop, workshops were the blind worked on various manufacturing projects, and a womens dormitory in1927. The building is now an Auckland City community centre and library. On the Domain side of the Institute is Pearson House, also designed by Gummer in 1926 in the neo-Georgian style as a men's hostel and a memorial for Arthur Pearson who founded St Dunstan's rehabilitation centre for blinded war veterans.

Halloran House

This Victoria villa, built in 1897, is a rare survivor of many such houses built in Newmarket during the 1880's and 1890's. For many years it was the home of Alice Irvine (1861-1962), and then Edna Halloran, both long-time residents of Newmarket. 

Olympic Park War Memorial

Newmarket's first war memorial, a stone archway, was erected at the northern entrance to the borough of Newmarket in memory of the men who fell in World War I. It was dedicated by the then Prime Minister, the Hon W.F. Massey, in 1924. In 1940, following the construction of the Newmarket Olympic Pool, and the names of Newmarket men who dies in the Second World War were added. A new memorial of standing stones was constructed in 2001 when Olympic Park was redeveloped.

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