NORTH SHORE HISTORY: WITH DAVID VERRAN
1_W0686 courtesy of Auckland Libraries Heritage Collection: dated 9 September 1925, this looks down the Terrace towards the corner with Anzac Street and Lake Road, showing the extent of the tram sheds.
Waiwharariki Anzac Square, a background history By David Verran
Following the Mahurangi land purchases from Māori, the Parish of Takapuna was surveyed by Allan O’Neill in 1843. That area covered from Devonport and Narrow Neck Beach to Lake Pupuke and across to Birkenhead, Glenfield and Northcote. On 1 February 1845 Andrew Rooney purchased Lot Eighty of that surveyed area for four hundred and eight pounds, eleven shillings and one pence. The total area of the Lot was thirty-nine acres, three roods and eighteen perches, and included all the land to the north of what became Northcroft Street, to the west of what is now Hurstmere Road and to the south of what is now Anzac Street, as far to the west as Pupuke Road, Takapuna. Likely that land was then used for pastoral purposes, including crops such as wheat or oats, or running horses, cattle or sheep. By 1863, the Terrace now intersected what is now Anzac Street, at that time called Katrine Street. This divided Lot Eighty in two, with Lots Four and Five of the new Section Ten, immediately to the west of Hurstmere Road, included later in Edwin Harrow’s Lake Hotel estate. Lot One of Section Ten later became Hall’s Corner. Significant transport changes came to Takapuna with the formation of the Takapuna Tram and Ferry Company in 1907 to provide a tram service around Lake Pupuke and Lake Road, with a ferry service at Bayswater. This required a depot and tram shed in Takapuna and according to David Balderston in his ‘The Bayswater harbour ferries of Auckland to Takapuna’ (2015) this was initially to be on the western side of Lake Road opposite Halls Corner, where the Takapuna Branches of the ANZ and BNZ are now. However, by March 1909 R H McCallum had been contracted to build the depot and tram shed on the eastern side, near the corner of what was still Katrine Street. The tram and ferry service began on 22 December 1910 and Katrine Street was renamed Anzac Street in September 1916. At that time, other streets in the Takapuna Borough area were also named or
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renamed to acknowledge people who served in the First World War. Also, the nearby Takapuna Primary School War Memorial Gates were unveiled on 10 May 1923, acknowledging 107 men and one nursing sister who served. Sixteen ex-pupils never returned. A September 1924 map shows the tram depot on Lot Eight, Section Ten. However, the above photograph from 1925 shows the fuller extent of the depot. When the tram service ceased on 27 April 1927, the land was taken by North Shore Transport Company for their bus depot. An office, bus shelter and petrol bowser station were later added. On 29 March 1929 a deed of settlement confirmed Frederick Seymour Potter’s donation to the Takapuna Borough Council of one acre of land at the Anzac Street corner for what has become a park and rose gardens. With the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in May 1959, the retail part of Takapuna became at that time the largest shopping centre on the North Shore. Accordingly, the Takapuna City Council used a targeted rate on local businesses to purchase the North Shore Transport Company’s site for a carpark. It was opened in 1964. More recently, the carpark site has also become the venue for the Sunday Takapuna Markets. A July 2003 report on the market dates it back to 1969, but at that time it wasn’t based on the current site. It was on to the carpark site from at least the early 1990s and at that time called the Takapuna Fleamarket. In 2015 a decision was made by Auckland Council to proceed with the creation of a new town square in Takapuna, consultations then followed and work has started this year. One of my difficulties in researching this article has been lack of access to Auckland Council archives. I hope to be able to provide more details once that is available again. david.verran@xtra.co.nz
