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Shortland Street, Auckland

Shortland Street was the initial commercial street of Auckland[1] and remains a key financial and legal centre for Auckland city.[2] It runs east from Queen Street up to Princes Street, providing a connection from the business district to the Auckland High Court and University of Auckland.

Length

0.35 km (0.22 mi)

Auckland CBD, New Zealand

1010

Queen Street

Princes Street

History[edit]

Shortland Street, initially called Shortland Crescent, was the initial main street of Auckland, built close to the shoreline of Commercial Bay (since reclaimed),[3] established and metalled by 1844.[4] Fore Street (now Fort Street) was built a block north on the shore of Commercial Bay in 1850.[3] The street was named for Willoughby Shortland, the first Colonial Secretary of New Zealand.[5][6]


Shortland Street was the earliest commercial hub of Auckland.[7][4] John Logan Campbell, David Nathan, and other early business figures in Auckland established their first stores on Shortland Street in the 1840s. The street was also ceremonially used as a way to visit Point Britomart (then a military camp), by figures such as Governor William Hobson.[5] In 1858, a major fire broke out on the street, destroying the wooden buildings in the area.[5]


By the 1860s, Queen Street had eclipsed Shortland Street as the primary commercial street for the township, after the land reclamation of Commercial Bay.[7][4] The street was home to the Auckland Star, one of the major newspapers for Auckland in the late 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the Auckland Club, a gentlemen's club.[5]


Soap opera Shortland Street was named for the street,[5] after it was originally planned to be filmed in a TVNZ-owned studio at 74 Shortland Street.

Blacketts Building, corner of Queen Street and Shortland Street, 1879, South British Insurance building.

[11]

South British Insurance Company building, 5–13 Shortland Street, 1920s.

[12]

Jean Batten Place Departmental Building, 12 Shortland Street, 1942. Government office/Post Office until 1989.

[13]

Hotel DeBrett, 15–19 Shortland Street, 1860 but rebuilt 1920s, called the Commercial Hotel until 1959.

[14]

building, 28 Shortland Street, c.1889–1989.[15]

Auckland Star

General Buildings, 29–27 Shortland Street, 1928.

[16]

Auckland Club, 34 Shortland Street, 1883–2010, gentleman's club.

[17]

48 Shortland Street, 2000, 38-storey office tower.[18]

Vero Centre

Kenneth Myers Centre

[19]

Shortland Flats, 93 Shortland Street, 1924, apartment building.

[20]

Churton Memorial, corner of Shortland Street and Emily Place, 1909, memorial to Reverend John Churton, first minister of .[21]

St Paul's Church