Princes St and the Exchange area, where the Toitu stream once
flowed into the harbour, was where local Maori beached their
canoes on the tidal mud flat and also where the first
European settlers landed - there is a plaque on the footpath
at the corner of Water St and Princes St marking the spot.
Nearby Jetty St is so named because it led to the jetty.
• Slideshow: Grand buildings dominate the
Exchange (more pictures)
As wealth in Otago was generated first by wool then the gold
rush, the mud flats were reclaimed and the settlers replaced
their original timber huts with more substantial buildings.
Dunedin soon became the country's leading commercial centre
and many firms built grand head offices and warehouses here
in the late 19th century.
William Mason's Stock Exchange, originally designed as the
post office (1868-1969), and the bond store, later known as
Edinburgh House (1865-1983), each filled a block but have
long gone.
Among those remaining are the former Bank of New Zealand
(1879), the former Union Bank, later ANZ Bank (1874), and the
Grand (1883) and Wains (1878) hotels, now the Southern Cross
and Mercure hotels respectively, and buildings dating from
the gold-rush period on the corner of Princes and Stafford
Sts still awaiting a resource consent for demolition.
Early in the 20th century, other grand buildings were erected
including the former National Bank (1912), Dunedin's first
"skyscraper" the seven-storey NZ Express Company Building
(1908) now Consultancy House, and the largest in the area,
the former Chief Post Office (1937).
However, as the centre of commerce shifted away from Dunedin
in the 20th century and fashions changed, people thought the
city should be modernised so many Victorian facades were
plastered over and their pediments and balustraded parapets
removed, according to Michael Findlay, professional practice
fellow in the design studies department at the University of
Otago.
"It was justified by the issue of earthquake standards, but
was more to refashion buildings to make them more acceptable
in the post-war period. There was a loathing of Victorian
things in general. People didn't see them through the
heritage preservation lens," he said.
We are in danger of repeating this now with modern concrete
and glass buildings of the 1950s-'70s.
Several notable examples of these add their gravity to the
Exchange area, among them the former National Insurance
Company, now Go Dunedin House (1958), designed by Dunedin
architects Mandeno and Fraser, and the former State Fire
office, now part of the Southern Cross hotel and casino,
designed in the 1950s by Salmond and Burt.
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