Farley's Buildings are among the oldest commercial buildings surviving in Dunedin, and though few might think it from their modest and scruffy appearance, they are rich in social, cultural, economic, religious, and even political history.
The buildings were erected for Henry Farley (c.1824-1880), a colourful entrepreneur whose business ventures in Dunedin included the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and Farley's Arcade (later redeveloped as Broadway).
The brick buildings with stone foundations were built between July and November 1863, and a report in the Daily Telegraph informed readers: ''Mr C.G. Smith is the architect of this very comprehensive pile of buildings, and its design, as a specimen of architecture, is extremely creditable to him.''
Not much is known about Charles Smith, but he designed Dunedin's Theatre Royal (1862), and claimed to have designed theatres in Sydney and San Francisco. Most of the buildings in Princes St at this time were wooden, so Farley's Buildings represented striking progress.
The block originally had exposed brick facades but they weathered badly and by the mid-1870s had been plastered.
Decorative details (including cornices and window surrounds) were preserved in rendered form, and the name ''Farley's Buildings'' was added to the parapet in relief lettering. Small additions with windows to Dowling St were made in the late 1880s, when the street was re-formed.
The original block of buildings included five ground-floor shops, upstairs offices, a music/assembly hall, and a photography studio.
The studio was in the portion that rises above the Dowling St corner and was first taken by Tait Brothers (Royal Caledonian Photographic Rooms), and later by Henry Frith, John McGregor (Edinburgh Portrait Rooms), John Gittins Wills (American Photo Company) and Charles Clarke Armstrong.
The artist Max Walker had a studio and flat here in the early 1940s, and his riotous parties were significant in Dunedin's developing gay subculture.
The assembly or concert room originally housed the Dunedin Music Hall, soon better known as Farley's Hall, under a high roof structure that can still be seen at the northern end of the buildings.
Events held in the 1860s included balls, dance classes, bazaars, banquets, Nicholas Chevalier's art exhibition, and a waxworks display from Madame Sohier's in Melbourne.
The hall held only about 300 people, so larger and newer venues were soon preferred.
The buildings were a site of government from 1864 to 1866, when the Otago Provincial Council used the hall as its chambers (prior to completion of the Provincial Government Buildings).
There were many other political meetings: Julius Vogel spoke here, as did supporters of James Macandrew prior to his re-election as superintendent in 1867. Other gatherings took in meetings of company directors, lodges, interest groups, and societies, including the Acclimatisation Society, Caledonian Society, Horticultural Society, Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute, and the Benevolent Institution (which also had offices in the buildings).
The hall was regularly used for religious gatherings, notably the Brethren services led by evangelist Alfred Brunton. One of Brunton's famous converts was the bushranger Henry Garrett, who in 1868 became a member of the congregation but brought much embarrassment on them by burgling the chemist shop below. Brunton's group moved to Garrison Hall in 1879 but another group continued to meet in Farley's Hall up to 1900.
Upstairs rooms were set up as offices, with the first tenant being barrister and solicitor G.E. Barton. Thomas Bracken, of the Saturday Advertiser, had rooms in the building in 1878, but it has not been confirmed if he was there in 1876, when he ran a competition to set to music his verses God Defend New Zealand. It is possible the words of the national anthem were written here. Other tenants in the 19th century included John Irvine (Dunedin's first professional portrait painter), David Henderson (lithographer), Alfred Boot (surgeon dentist), John Hewitt (dentist), Alexander Hunter (surgeon), Edmund Quick (consular agent), and Abraham Solomon (pawnbroker). Solomon, who was a leading member of the local Jewish community, bought Farley's Buildings around 1880 and the block remained in family ownership more than 50 years later.
The ground floor shops were originally let to Walsh Brothers (boot and shoe sellers), Thomas Collins (fruiterer and confectioner), McLeod & Gibson (grocers), and Ure & Co (tea dealers and warehousemen). The remaining shop was subdivided for Thomas Bray (hatter and outfitter) and M. Jones.
Stewart Dawson & Co, the Australian jewellers, occupied the corner premises from 1902 to 1979. Alterations carried out for them saw two shops combined into one, new shop fronts, and the installation of compressed-steel wall and ceiling decoration made by the Wunderlich Company of Sydney. The colourful and brightly lit interior was described in the Cylopedia of New Zealand as having the appearance of a fairy palace.
Cookham House, a footwear store, occupied the present 132 Princes St from 1904, and later moved to another shop in the buildings before relocating to George St in 1984. J.C. Gore Ltd, jewellers, went into business in 1949 and moved into Farley's Buildings in 1962. This firm closed in 2005 but their old neon sign can still be seen above the veranda.
In October 1906 a fire destroyed the building of the New Zealand Bible, Tract, and Book Society, which stood immediately to the north. Solomon replaced it with additions to Farley's Buildings that repeated the existing facade treatment. The Bible Depot remained there into the 1930s and that portion of the buildings is now the home of Disk Den, a music shop that was established by Russell and Alma Oaten in Rattray St in 1958, and which has been on its present site since 1987.
Among physical changes to the block, bullnose verandahs running the length of the buildings were added in 1904 but replaced with suspended verandas in the 1930s; the facades were replastered in the 1940s, when decorative detailing was removed and window openings altered; a large skylight above the hall was removed, and the photography studio has been reclad. Despite these alterations the essential original form is more apparent than it is in Princes St's other 1860s survivors (most of which are behind later facades), and in terms of Dunedin's commercial architecture, Farley's Buildings are a rare link to the early 1860s gold rush.
For more from David Murray go to builtindunedin.com.
