Queen Street
ca. 1869-1870 (John Tensfeld) - 2026
This then-and-now pair is presented as two separate images (rather than an overlaid cross-dissolve) as it proved impossible to exactly match the original camera position. (Click on the historical image for a larger version.)
Historical image: Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira | PH-RES-687
The original negative for the historical picture is no doubt long-lost, and the versions of it in museums and libraries are copies of prints, all in varying states of preservation. Auckland Museum, whose copy is seen above, give a date of ca.1870. The Alexander Turnbull Library has a version copied from a publication 'Auckland. Old and Recent Views' (Auckland City Council, 1910), which gives a date for the picture as 1863. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections have a copy of the image which they date to 1869-1870.
The 1869-1870 date seems much more likely than 1863; not only is Tensfeld known to have been active in Auckland in the years 1869 and 1870 but there are also clues in the image itself. For instance the signage on the Anchor Hotel at left: 'Anchor Hotel. F. Williams. Good Stabling.' The first mention in newspapers of the period (from the National Library's Papers Past site) associating the name Williams with the Anchor Hotel seems to be from an issue of the Daily Southern Cross, 22 July 1867. And the first mention of the firm E. George and Company, butchers, seen at right in the historical picture on the corner of Wakefield and Rutland Streets, is from the Daily Southern Cross issue of 10 April 1869.
Below: This detail from Tensfeld's image shows the Anchor Hotel on the corner of Grey Street (left) and Queen Street (centre).
Below: This detail shows the butchers premises at the foot of Wakefield Street. In 1869 the company was advertising 'CHEAP MEAT' for twopence-halfpenny per pound (Daily Southern Cross, 10 April 1869).
Below: Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, in their description of their copy of the historical image, point out Hartley Webster's Photographic Studio, with a rack for photographic printing frames on the roof, seen at the centre of this crop from the historical image. Webster was especially notable as Auckland’s first resident professional photographer. Photographs by him (or attributed to him) can be seen on this site, here, here, and (perhaps) here. Another view of his studio, from roughly the same period, is here.
Close, But No Cigar
As noted above, it proved impossible to accurately match the camera position for the historical image as the Auckland Town Hall (constructed 1909-1911) now occupies the site, placing the original camera position now somewhere inside the building. A balcony below the building's clock tower afforded the nearest match, but placed the camera position a little too far north. (For a then-and-now treatment of a photograph showing the Auckland Town Hall taken shortly after its construction, click here.)
It may be that Tensfeld achieved his elevated viewpoint by shooting from a building that stood roughly in the middle of the present Auckland Town Hall site, the Army and Navy Hotel, constructed in 1865 (of brick; there may have been an earlier timber structure on the site). Below is an image showing the hotel under construction (at far left). Queen Street is in the foreground, with Grey Street (now Greys Avenue) at centre.
Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 4-00052
Below is an image from a similar viewpoint to that above, showing the completed Army and Navy Hotel.
Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira | Grey Street, PH-ALB-94-p6-1
Lastly, a panorama of the modern scene (2026) viewed from the Auckland Town Hall. Click and drag to pan left and right; click on the fullscreen button (or simply double-click on the image) to enlarge.
Special thanks to the management of Auckland Town Hall.
