Looking east along Quay Street East
ca.1904 (Charles Spencer) – 2025

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ca.1904 image: Charles Spencer | Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, composite of 4_01059 and 4_03681a_24

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The only building common to both the then and now images above is the Northern Steamship Building—at centre, with flag flying in Spencer's picture—dating from 1898 (a third storey was added in the 1920s1).

Below: Two details from Spencer's photograph. Click on the images for larger versions.






The date for Spencer's photograph can be no earlier than around mid-1904: In January of that year the engineering firm A J Parker and Company purhased an empty allotment on Quay Street2 and built a single-storey building next door (to the east) of the far grander New Zealand Shipping Company building. By June the company was advertising for staff for its new Quay Street premises.3 This modest building, with its arched facade, can be seen in the detail of Spencer's photograph above, between the Northern Steamship and New Zealand Shipping Company buildings. The most recent photograph of Quay Street East I've found that does not show this building is a Henry Winkelmann image from 21 March 1904 (detail below, with the vacant lot where the A J Parker building would be constructed circled).



Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 1-W1099 (detail)

By July 1904 the AJ Parker building has appeared; it can be seen at centre below in a detail from another Winkelmann photograph.



Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 1-W1141 (detail)


As for an upper date limit, the area of the advertising hoardings at right in Spencer's image provides a clue. By May 1905, in a detail from another Henry Winkelmann image (below), they had a greatly altered appearance (in particular, the rounded section advertising Three Castles tobacco, present in the 1903 and 1904 pictures seen here, including Spencer's image, had disappeared). What appears to be a merry-go-round has popped up, and the first Endeans Building on the corner of Quay and Queen Streets is under construction. This would be replaced by the second Endeans building, part of which can be seen at right in the 2025 image above.

Given these dating constraints (and given the overcoats worn by a couple of the figures in Spencer's picture) it may be that Spencer took his photograph in mid-1904, though late '04 or early '05 certainly can't be ruled out.



Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 1-W1208 (detail)


Below: This detail from a Winkelmann image made in July 1903 shows the area of the advertising hoardings at left. The spot by the entrance to Queen Street wharf where Spencer would set up his camera is circled. (The circus tent behind the hoardings was that of Antonio's Novelty Circus ["Performing Dogs, Monkeys, Parrots, Sword Swallowing, Juggling, Etc., Etc." 4] which operated here briefly in June and July 1903.) Click on image for a larger version.


Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 1-W1067-PAN (detail)


Setting the Scene

Below: Although made perhaps eighteen months or so before Spencer's photograph, this detail from a sweeping February 1903 panorama of the waterfront by Melvin Vaniman5 gives a nice overview of the scene, from the Northern Steamship Company Building at far left, to the area at far right where Spencer would have set up his camera for the Quay Street picture. Click on image for a larger version.


Vaniman, Melvin, 1866-1912. Vaniman, Melvin, 1866-1912: Panoramic photograph of Auckland city. Ref: PA9-051. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22854633 (detail)




  1. See this Heritage New Zealand article↩

  2. New Zealand Herald, 14 January 1904, Page 4↩

  3. Auckland Star, 11 June 1904, Page 5↩

  4. New Zealand Herald, 10 July 1903, Page 8↩

  5. Vaniman's superb panorama is in the collection of the Alexander Turnbull Library and can be viewed on the NZ National Library's website here. The date given for Vaniman's picture is Sunday 9 February 1903 (there is an inscription to that effect on the print). The length and angle of the shadows in the scene suggest that the picture was taken around mid-morning.

    That it was taken on a Sunday might explain (I thought) the lack of hustle and bustle on Quay Street evident in Spencer's picture, and a very quiet-looking Queen Street. The only problem with this is that the 9th of February in 1903 was a Monday. So much for that bright idea. But having said that, perhaps there's another possibility: Vaniman may indeed have made his panorama on a Sunday but got the date wrong. This would explain the lack of activity on Quay and Queen Streets, and the fact that the doors of the Northern Roller Milling Company's premises on Quay Street (left of centre) are closed; they should have been open on a working day.

    One could muddy these waters further by asking whether Vaniman, an American, wrote the date above his signature in the US style of month/day/year. In that case '9 2 03' would be 2 September (a Wednesday) but this seems not to have been the case, as Vaniman made another version of this panorama from what looks like exactly the same viewpoint dated '10 2 03' in his signature (there is no other inscription) which must surely have been the following day.

    It's not clear whether it was Vaniman or someone else who added the mistaken inscription.↩



    6. The mistaken inscription at bottom-centre of the print.

    Vaniman's signature at bottom-right.