Dinner and Drinks at House

When you're not eating and drinking at home - you could go to House (on Hood street).

House is one of my favourite haunts, as they seem to sell every fine ale there is, and have a brilliant chef. On the cards yesterday where a variety of ciders, and indeed a tasty main of Lamb rump, with bacon, beans and spuds - the perfect thing to soak up that alcohol. I'd give their effort last night a 9/10, which is consistent with my previous visits.

House on Hood, Hood Street, Hamilton - Jan 2011

Of course, Hamiltonians will probably remember the venue as the loaded hog - it's gone a long way upclass since then, and it's certainly a change from the buildings' first life, as a hotel:

Hood Street, 1939

The New Zealand Dairy Association building on Victoria/London

On the corner of Victoria and London streets stands one of my favourite historic buildings in Hamilton, the former Dairy Association building, built in 1920. I have as yet never found a historic photo of this building, but it's been there ninety odd years.

Former Dairy Association building, 661 Victoria Street (cnr London Street), Hamilton - April 2011

What has saddened me all these years is the fact that this building has continuately remained tenantless, and seemed to be owned by someone who didn't want to invest much money into it. Fortunately, that is about to change, as the building has just recently sold, and will be restored to contain a series of apartments. That means the facade will be restored and earthquake strengthened, and this building will grace our main street for many years to come.

Seventies retro goodness in Garden Place

Who remembers the DIC department store in Garden Place? I don't, it's before my time. This is what it looked like in 1975. Big glass windows to let in the light, and an orange and white colour scheme.

DIC Department Store - Garden Place, Hamilton - 1975

In 1993, the building was converted to house Hamilton's public library, and now looks like this. Exactly why the council insists on painting our libraries that abhorid shade of blue, I'm not sure, but the building was brought up to nineties standards pretty well. They've even put a bit of that old orange into the colour scheme!

Hamilton Library - Garden Place, Hamilton - 2010

Edit:

As Robyn mentioned, the ground floor of the DIC building used to host a pizzeria belonging to one Joe Di Maio. A few more photos:

Hamilton Pizzeria, Garden Place, Hamilton

Hamilton Pizzeria, Garden Place, Hamilton

Joe Di Maio - Hamilton Pizzeria

For more on Joe Di Maio, see this article.

What was in that gap: Knox street clinic carpark

Sometimes, you'd never guess that a gap once had something interesting. Other times, there are subtle clues, like this fence:

I'd had this photo for a while, and was puzzling over where this building could have been, and then I spotted the fence whilst out and about. What replaced this early Hamilton municipal building? A carpark!

Government Buildings, Knox Street Hamilton - 1890s

Government Buildings, Knox Street Hamilton - 1930s

Government Buildings, Knox Street Hamilton - 1960s

Unfortunately, all my research on this building has come to nothing. All I've found is that the last photo above, taken in the '60s, was shortly before the building's demise. This is what the site looks like now - a car park with some old garages at the back. Most of the fence remains, but that's it.

Knox Street - 2011

Hamilton Lake, two photos a hundred years, and worlds apart

I walk around Hamilton lake (Lake Rotorua) on a fairly regular basis. Here is a photo I took last night.

Hamilton Lake (Lake Rotorua) - 7 Feb 2011

And here is a similar photo which is from 1908:

Hamilton Lake (Lake Rotorua) - 2 Apr 1908

Quite a marked difference

What was in that gap: ... wait, there's a gap there?

Yesterday, this was a building. Today, a pile of rubble. With a digger in the middle of it. The neighbouring building still looks like a building, but it's more a of Potemkin building now - completely hollow. I doubt it'll be there next week.

Bridge Street Hamilton - The Source Video rubble - 4-Feb-2011

This used to be the Source video rentals. In fact, I've been in the store many times. Of course, like the concept of video rentals, the stores time had come, as had the neighbouring building, which housed Next Electronic servicing (their time came too, they went into liquidation recently).

The following street view will remind you what the place looked like beforehand:

Bridge Street Hamilton - The Source Video  - Google Streetview

Movie posters are still up:

Bridge Street Hamilton - The Source Video rubble - 4-Feb-2011

I don't think they accept their competitor's vouchers anymore either...

Bridge Street Hamilton - The Source Video rubble - 4-Feb-2011

Next door: Next electronic servicing. If you look through the windows you'll note the back of the building is gone already.

Bridge Street Hamilton - Next Servicing (partially demolished) - 4-Feb-2011

So what's coming in it's place? Dunno. There have been rumours for some time of a Hotel on this site, but that could prove to be a red herring. Hopefully something will come in the place of these buildings. Ideally something of some architectural merit - having said that, the bar is pretty low to improve upon what was there.

What was in that gap: Wintec Carpark (cnr Ward and Angelsea)

Whenever I see a vacant site in a city - I wonder what was there before.

This particular site, the corner of Ward Street and Angelsea Street has been vacant for my entire time in Hamilton.

Cnr Ward Street and Angelsea (outside Wintec) 2011

 The site once contained a most hardware store: Odlin's. Odlin's Hardware became part of the Winstone Group, would would in turn become part of modern Fletchers - in other words, what would now be branded as Placemakers.

Odlin's Hardware Hamilton (cnr Ward and Angelsea) 1970

I'm not entirely sure why this store was torn down, and it's not the greatest architectural loss, but it would be good to see something other than a gravel carpark in it's place.

There isn't much left of this scene: Hamilton, 1964

The following photo was taken during the Hamilton Centennial celebrations, in fact, the image was taken on the 22nd of August 1964. A question for all you Hamiltonians though - where was this image taken?

Hamilton Centennial Parade - 22 August 1964

The clues:
Only one building in the image still exists.
There are now trees in the middle of this street.
The South British buildings site on in the foreground now has a bank.

The answers:
The building that still exists was the Post Office. This is of course no longer a Post Office at all.
The parade went through the main street - the photo is of Victoria Street.
Victoria Street has trees - in particular since the Main Street upgrade which was part of City Heart.
The bank which is now in the foreground is Westpac. BNZ is in the background.
The Regent Theatre in the middle ground was demolished by HCC - they are now part owners of the Novotel on the site.

The "now" picture, taken the other day.

Hamilton 2010 - Victoria Street looking South from Ward Street intersection.

What to do in Hamilton on a wet day? Waikato Museum

On a day like today, I often find myself wondering what to do - it's wet, so a walk is more or less out of the question, and there is little enjoyment to be had shopping on a wet day - it's busy and especially aggrevating when you don't need anything.

So, we went to Waikato museum. There are as always a few exhibitions on - only two of real interest to me, which are:

Never a Dull Moment focuses on Hamilton's history - and features much of the sort of history that I feature on this blog. There were even a few interesting photos that I'd never seen before, and a re-cap of much of the city's history. The history in this exhibit starts after the land-wars, and carries through just past WWII. Probably 30-90 minutes of material here.

Never A Dull Moment - Hamilton Stories (Waikato Museum)

Ngaa Pou Whenua tells the story of the four tribes that descend from the Tainui canoe - Waikato, Pare Hauraki, Raukawa and Maniapoto. While the exhibit is small, it is an interesting insight into the history of the tribes, and their modern form. Most enjoyable for me was some modern Maori art - a nice change from the ubiquitous traditional styles. The exhibit has maybe around 20 to 60 minutes worth of material.

Ngaa Pou Whenua (Waikato Museum)

Some things don't change much...

So I found an old picture of the National Insurance building (now Caro House) on the corner of the Caro Street and Alexandra Street here in Hamilton. This one is a building that has stood the test of time. Between the 1956 pic, and mine from just the other day, the only differences are the ground floor shops, the added awnings, and the extended window sills (for reasons I don't know)...

It's good to see some things do remain as originally intended. Even the current paint scheme is sympathetic to the design.



National Insurance Building (Caro House) 1956



National Insurance Building (Caro House) 2011

Missing Hamilton Architecture: The State Theatre

There are many buildings in Hamilton that have disappeared completely, and some that are still standing. The State Theatre is truely neither. When built on the corner of London Street and Victoria Street in 1932 the theatre appeared similar to the below photo (taken in 1939).

State Theatre Hamilton 1939

The theatre operated until 1964, at which time it was reopened as the Carlton and continued to trade until the opening of Village cinemas in Centreplace, which ultimately spelled doom for the State Theatre, as well as other theatres like the Embassy and the Regent.

The building would be tennanted by the Fountain City Church, until it was purchased in 2001 by Bayleys Real Estate, who, initially where going to demolish they building. Truth be told, they may as well have, there is not a lot left of it. The building was kept as it turned out to be one of the regions first reinforced concrete buildings, but for the most part, was gutted and stripped of it's architectural features, as my following photos show.

Ex State Theatre Hamilton 2011 - Bayleys Building

The original concrete panels are visible on the London Street facade

Only minor details of the State Theatre survive

The only significant detail of the orginal facade of the State Theatre.

State Theatre, next to it's modern counterpart, the Victoria Cinema

It's really sad that the State Theatre did not survive the last decade, while an independent cinema, the Victoria Cinema has started in a much less appropriate building next door.