blog 5

The former Bank of New Zealand on Lampton quay was the first Bank of New Zealand. Built between 1899 and 1901 by architect Thomas Turnbull, the Bank building is Barque revival. It had a use of strong geometric shapes with the flued columns, arched windows and triangle cupolas but also lavish ornaments such as the lions and human heads imbedded in the walls, and organic flowing curves within the structure. It was said that there was meant to be more ornaments but the Government wouldn’t allow it, saying it was to lavish for a bank.

Before the bank was built John Plimmer owned a warehouse “Plimmer’s Ark”m the timber from this was recontracted into the bank and can still be seen today in the BNZ basement. The bank was used as the National Head Office and Wellington branch from 1901 through to 1984. Following this it moved to a new location. People had plans to pull it down to make way for the building boom of the 1960’s - 80’s, but for the next 20 years people fought to keep the bank building. In 1999 the bank was opened as a retail complex that has access to an underground mall and The Grand Arcade on Willis street. The Bank is now protected by the Heritage Order, meaning that the building will not be destroyed in the near future.

Kelly, M. (1961). Heritage trail. Old shoreline, Wellington city. Wellington City Council, Wellington, New Zealand

Cattell, J. (1986). Historic buildings of Wellington: a register of classified buildings. Government Printing Office Publishing, Wellington, N.Z.

Griffin, RH. (2001). Old BNZ Wellington : an architectural survey of the buildings used by the Bank of New Zealand on the Lambton Quay - Customhouse Quay - Hunter Street site. O'Griffy. Auckland, N.Z.