Shoe leather, Boots and all

Switzer’s Building at 192 Princes St, Dunedin, in 1923. PHOTO: HOCKEN COLLECTIONS MS-2248/031

A bright red façade in Princes St invites the attention of passers-by, but few would guess that behind this 1930s front is a 150-year-old building.

Its story begins with John Switzer. Born in Winchester, Hampshire, in 1830, Switzer was the son of a bootmaker. He followed his father’s trade and after a period in Australia arrived in Dunedin with his wife and infant daughter in September 1857. Within two months he established a boot and shoe warehouse, later named Cookham House after the "Cookham" hobnail boots imported from England. Switzer sold the business in 1863, not long before opening a new Cookham Store in Rattray St.

Switzer’s Building after remodelling in 1939. PHOTO: HOCKEN COLLECTIONS MS-2248/034

Switzer’s many business ventures included Hyde Home Station in Southland. He owned the property for only a year, but the goldrush township afterwards established there was called Switzers after him. It later became known by its present name, Waikaia.

In 1864 Switzer was a shareholder in the new Dunedin Boot and Shoe Company. He became the manager of its outlet opened under the familiar Cookham House name, on what is now part of the Southern Cross Hotel site on Princes St. At the end of 1865 the company decided to move a block north, to the address that has since become 192 Princes St. At the time there was a wooden building on this site, occupied by the auctioneers G. W. Moss & Co, and above were rooms called the Princes Street Chambers.

Architect R. A. Lawson called for tenders for a new building in December 1865. This was early in Lawson’s career. The design for First Church that had brought him to Dunedin was yet to be built, but he was well-established after three years living and working here. His design for the Boot Company was brick, with a bluestone basement and an Oamaru stone front. The Otago Daily Times promised it would be a ‘‘handsome structure’’. It was representative of a new class of building in Dunedin, as the wealth brought by the gold rush began to be reflected in the buildings of the new city.

Photographs show an elaborately ornamented Gothic Revival façade. First-floor decoration included clustered pilasters with Corinthian capitals, grapes and floral decoration, and a carved head in the keystone above the central window.

The upper part of the building was named Eldon Chambers. This followed the original Eldon Chambers in London, which took their name from the English barrister and politician Lord Eldon (1751-1838). The name was repeated in many locations in Britain, Australasia, and elsewhere, typically for buildings with rooms for lawyers and other professionals. The first occupants of the Dunedin chambers were Prendergast, Kenyon & Maddock (lawyers), George Brodie, (inspector of bankruptcy), Dick & Fleming (land agents etc.), Dr Alfred Eccles, and H. F. Hardy (architect).

In March 1867 a fire broke out in the cellar but the damage was confined to that space. Evidence at the inquest exposed the precarious state of Switzer’s finances. He had bought the stock and trade of the company a few months before, and suspicion was raised that he set the fire to get the insurance money. He was charged with arson. The trial took place over six weeks and ended with Switzer’s acquittal, but in the meantime he was bankrupted. Once his affairs were settled he left New Zealand for London, and a few years later emigrated with his family to Canada.

After Switzer’s departure the shop was occupied by a succession of tailors, before the printers J. Wilkie & Co. opened a warehouse and stationery factory. The firm made various additions at the back to cope with their expanding business, and in 1892 moved their manufacturing to another site, keeping a warehouse and retail shop in Princes St.

A full list of those occupying Eldon Chambers would be too long to list here, but some had particularly long associations. H. F. Hardy kept his office until 1882. The law firm of Herbert Webb and the succeeding partnership of Webb & Allan had rooms for more than 40 years. Another connection of over 35 years belonged to the Dick family: the parliamentarian Thomas Dick and his son Thomas H. Dick were commission agents.Alfred Hanlon, admitted to the bar on December 20, 1888, took an office in Eldon Chambers in New Year 1889. He furnished it with a plain deal kitchen table covered with oilcloth, three cane chairs, and a letter press. He waited three months for his first client.

He later wrote: "I was now thoroughly daunted, and I think that at times I almost hated the office and all its associations ... It came to this, that every time I heard a step I trembled. Would it reach my door? With feverish haste I would fling open my largest law book — Benjamin on Sales — on to the table, and when the knock came my too studiedly casual ‘Come in’ arose from a head buried in the large tome. But it was all to no purpose. My carefully staged scene made no impression, because the caller was always another debt collector."

Hanlon was 10 years in Eldon Chambers and in that time became one of New Zealand’s most celebrated criminal lawyers. In 1895 he famously but unsuccessfully defended the "Winton baby farmer" Minnie Dean, the only woman hanged by the State in New Zealand.

Wilkie & Co merged into Coulls Somerville Wilkie in 1922, but a shop specialising in stationery and gifts continued to trade under the name Wilkies until 1927. It was then rebranded under new ownership as Bells Limited, and remained on the site until 1939.

In 1939 the Oamaru stone façade was removed and the building was radically remodelled. An entirely new front was built in the streamline Moderne style to the designs of Wellington architects Clere, Clere & Hill. The new owners were Boots the Chemists, the pharmacy chain established in England in 1849, which had set up a New Zealand operation in 1935.

In 1959 the Hob-Nob Coffee Garden was built in the basement for owner-operator Ted Paterson. The café was a good place for a toastie pie and coffee, and was known for its cheese rolls and corn rolls. The Hob Nob lasted until about 1970 when it briefly became the Van Dyke Expresso Bar [sic]. It was the Hibiscus Coffee Garden for about eight years, before its closure in about 1979.

In its heyday Boots employed about 12 staff in its Dunedin shop. After 50 years in Princes St it closed its doors in September 1990. A company executive from Wellington said: "The city fathers have killed that part of town. Once it was the prime business area in the city. Now it is disgracefully tatty."

He thought Boots should have pulled out years before, but ultimately the parent company had decided to close all of its retail outlets in New Zealand.

The New Canton Restaurant moved to the building in 1993. The original Canton Cafe had operated from a building on the opposite side of the street since 1961, and from 1978 under the ownership and management of Kee and Sanny Young. Mrs Young, who grew up in Macau and Hong Kong, was the chief cook. She later recalled: "You couldn’t get Chinese food then. No bean sprouts, or pastry, or noodles ... It was very difficult to buy our food, so we opened the restaurant. But it was too busy. We could only seat 50 and lost bookings, so ... we moved across the road to here".

The New Canton closed in February 2013 and the Punjab Restaurant has since taken its place, the latest chapter in a century and a-half of business activity at 192 Princes St.

- For more from David Murray go to builtindunedin.com.