Symonds Street Toilets

 

These have been a feature of Auckland City for many years, ever since 1910 exactly. The public toilets are on the corner of Grafton Road and Symonds Street and for quite some time they looked run down and grubby.  Normally I wouldn't post about public loos but these are such an historic icon.

In August this year they were given a $910,000 upgrade thanks to the Waitemata Local Board. The toilets were originally built for tram passengers and co-incided with the opening of Grafton Bridge. Up until the mid 1800s people could only go to the toilet in a hotel, bush or side street and they could be charged for with indecency if in a public place. Auckland City opened it's first public toilets in 1863 on Queen Street Wharf but these were only for men and it wasn't until the Symonds Street ones opened in 1910 that women were able to use them. (Information from Our Auckland).

Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.

Karangahape Rocks

I've been wanting to take a photo of this sculpture for ages, when I lived in Auckland many years ago I wasn't really interested in it but now I think it's just so weird and unusual. Here's what I found out about it:

Greer Twiss's bronze 'Karangahape rocks' (1967–69) sits in a park on the corner of Auckland's Karangahape Road and Symonds Street. It is a water fountain but the flow is modest – Twiss had the water trickle gently down the grooves in the large discs so it would not spray out in high winds. The water feature broke down in the late 1980s and was only repaired in 2012. 

It's like a focal point where it's located, at an intersection of Grafton Bridge and is easily seen if anyone is sitting in their car at the traffic lights. Greer is the Godfather of contemporary sculptures, for more than 50 years he has made them, exhibited, been collected, been commissioned, taught, been reviewed and written about. He has also been a pioneer of cast metal here in New Zealand and has also held exhibitions overseas.

 Linking up with The Weekend Roundup and  Weekend Reflections.

The old Grafton Bridge Flats

See that building on the corner? It's known as the old Grafton Bridge Flats - 5 years ago they were up for sale and despite looking it's age some of the flats are still being lived in by tenants, probably university students or nurses who work across the road at the Auckland Hospital.

According to the Timespanner blog, the land that it sits on use to belong to the Wesleyan School that shifted to Three Kings but kept the land as an endowment asset. This makes sense as my dad's great grandparents were of the same religion and they lived in the city as well in the late 1800s.

I haven't been able to find the exact age of the buildings but from my research I've established that there have always been shops below the flats from this advertisement in the NZ Herald 1927:

And this advertisement from the Auckland Star 1927 wanting a tenant for one of the balcony flats which would've overlooked the entire city:

The only other photo I've managed to find of it is this one from when it was for sale through Bayleys Real Estate but you can see parts of Parnell, Ponsonby, Sandringham etc behind it.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday and My Corner of the World.

The old Grafton Bridge

How did your Halloween go this week? It came and went for us, we had a few groups of children knocking on our door and we already had a bowl of sweets ready to give out but apart from that it was pretty quiet.

Anyway earlier this week we traveled to Auckland to pick up the other half's step daughter from the airport. On the way we explored parts of the city - now I grew up in Auckland and worked in the central city for many years so sometimes I miss it.

This iconic structure named the Grafton Bridge is on the outer fringe and opened in 1910. It links up Grafton Gully to Karangahape Road, Auckland Hospital and the Auckland Domain. At the time it was built it was the largest concrete bridge arch in the world. Originally the first bridge built was made of wood at 360 feet long and 85 feet high - this one was built in 1885 but as population grew people voiced their opinions about the safety of the structure.

In 1907 the Auckland City Council took tenders to build the new concrete bridge (still there today) which measures 296 metres long with a central span of 320 feet, rising 84 feet  with a height of 142 feet off the valley floor.

In recent years the wave shaped like cover was put over both sides to prevent people jumping over onto the busy motorway below. Underneath the bridge exists the Symonds Street cemetery, one of the oldest places in NZ which houses the remains of mostly early settlers in the 1800s.

(photo from Heritage.org.nz)

These days this part of the city houses mostly University students and only a handful of the old colonial properties still exist.