Dress up in the period of 1920s to the 1970s when the Remuera Tudor theatre provided entertainment for Remueraites. Get out your furs and hats, suits and costumes for an elegant night at the movies. 

From director Beaumont Smith about a “silly ass” Englishman who inherits a sheep station in New Zealand and meets and falls in love with a great New Zealand girl Kiwi McGill. 

When: Friday 9th June 2017 at 7pm 

Where: St Mark’s Church hall, 95 Remuera Road 

Refreshments provided from 7pm and during the intermission 

Prizes for best dressed male and female in period costume. 

Tickets: $20 for members; $25 for non-members RSVP for catering purposes to Annette Jackman at va.j@xtra.co.nz 

Payment by bank deposit 06-0257-0198761-00 Remuera Heritage Inc. 

The Tudor theatre opened in June 1926, at 333 Remuera Rd, owned by Fuller Hayward Theatres Corporation and F.G. Mumford. The interior was mostly in a Tudor style with lots of dark wood and Tudor rose emblems, with the exterior illuminated by floodlights at night. It seated 1066 people and was the centre of social life in Remuera until it closed in 1972. It was demolished in 1980, to be replaced by the Tudor Mall.

Images:

Tudor Theatre Remuera MOTAT 13-2233 1930.   Tudor Theatre at night 1930s J G McGuire Walsh Memorial Library MOTAT 

Our Treasurer of 10 years is stepping down and we need to find a replacement - do you know how to be a treasurer and enjoy all things heritage? 

Contact us http://www.remueraheritage.org.nz/contact here.

We'd love to hear from you.

Remuera Heritage Committee

Chair’s Annual Report to 31 March 2017 

Welcome to members, members of the Orakei Local Board and friends of the society. 2017 is our 10th anniversary - Remuera Heritage was started after the demolition of Coolangatta at 464 Remuera Road in December 2006 - Jennifer Wiseman, Remuera community librarian, convened the first meeting on 25th May 2007 and Terry Sutcliffe was elected as Chair of Remuera Heritage.

The last 12 months have seen some fabulous events – We have had a focus on the 100 year commemorations of World War One, starting with the Anzac Day Remembrance Service at St Aidan’s Church war memorial. Herb Farrant of the N Z Military Historical Society spoke very movingly on the Battle of the Somme on the Western Front in France, which occurred 100 years ago from July-November 1916. It was on the Somme that the majority of New Zealanders were killed or wounded during the First World War. And it was here that New Zealand experienced its worst days in military history in terms of loss of life. The Battle of the Somme was New Zealand’s first major engagement on the Western Front. It took a huge toll on the 15,000 members of the New Zealand Division who were involved. Roughly one in seven of the division who fought on the Somme was killed, and about four in every 10 were wounded. Thirty plus men from Remuera were killed at the Battle of the Somme.  During the Auckland Heritage Festival we joined the Remuera Railway Station Preservation Trust to look at the interior of the station with Graeme Burgess, heritage architect. This interesting old building is of historical significance both to the history of Remuera and to New Zealand's rail heritage. Graeme Burgess and Lilli Knight spoke about their updated conservation plan for this station and their work on other heritage stations. 

At our Christmas party, Thomas Swinburn from Dilworth College spoke on his being a Young Ambassador for New Zealand on the Shared Histories project to commemorate the First World War. Thomas travelled to Arras and Quesnoy in France to participate in commemoration services for the Battle of the Somme. This year we went to Auckland Grammar School as it was the 100th anniversary of the opening of the main Spanish Mission-style building. And last month we went to the Bruce McLaren Trust museum at the Upland Road shops where we were hosted by Bruce McLaren’s sister Jan McLaren. The trust has kept the name alive in New Zealand – McLaren is a global car racing brand and Jan’s efforts has ensured his name and heritage is preserved and promoted from here in Remuera. For this coming year, we’re looking at a Night at the Tudor Theatre evening and showing some old Auckland movies, doing more on the history of the Remuera shops, the Auckland Heritage Festival with a theme of transport (Trains & Boats & Planes) – and a visit to the Crown Lynn Pottery museum at New Lynn. 

Auckland Unitary Plan 

The Auckland unitary Plan is more or less over and adopted as the blueprint for the future development of Auckland. In February this year, the Environment Court confirmed that the decision by Auckland Council at the last minute means to change the zoning of many streets that were single house zones in the unitary plan to multi-level dwellings was legal and will now stand. The change in zoning from Single House to Terrace Housing & Apartment Buildings affected 29,000 house owners who were given no right of reply to this. The Character Coalition said:- "We believe the Council reacted to the massive pressure it was under from the development lobby and denied 29,000 ratepayers any form of natural justice". The Character Coalition rejected claims that the rezoning was required to solve Auckland's housing crisis. "The land in many of these streets is so valuable that what we are now seeing is people buy old villas and demolish them and build bigger houses - but many of these new houses are not in character with the area and still do nothing to solve the housing crisis." We are working on identifying buildings that should be listed on the Historic Heritage Schedule and working with Auckland Council, the Orakei Local Board and Heritage New Zealand to accomplish this. And while I am on this topic, I would like to mention the sterling work and support we have received from Chair Desley Simpson and Troy Churton of the Orakei Local Board. There were some successes from the unitary plan process: 

The Remuera Railway Station was moved from Category B to A by Auckland Council on the Historic Heritage Schedule. Ditto for the Remuera Public Library and Mainston House/Manor at 4 Mainston Rd, which is Remuera’s oldest house built in 1853. Meanwhile old villas in Remuera continue to be removed or demolished, particularly in Clonbern Road. This coming year we are working on prioritizing 4 or 5 Remuera buildings to be added to the Historic heritage Schedule and on a project to identify and present in a graphical format the Remuera shops from the early 20th century to 2000. 

Communications 

The website has had more biographies of Remuera WW1 servicemen added, including that of Henry John Innes Walker Henry John Innes Walker, known as Jack Walker, of Victoria Avenue, Remuera was killed near Ypres on 25th April 1915 and his remains were found 101 years later in a Flanders field by an archaeological team preparing the way for a gas pipeline to be laid. His New Zealand descendants were interviewed on New Zealand, Belgium and U K television. http://www.remueraheritage.co.nz/people/ww1-henry-john-innes-walker Places added included the Mission Sisters House at 78 Upland Road and the Remuera Children’s Home which was in Portland Road from 1903 to 1913. http://www.remueraheritage.co.nz/places 

Photo: Sue Cooper, Chair & Sue Jackson, Remuera Library Manager

A monthly article appeared in the April 2017 issue of The Hobson on the Boucher brothers, Edgar (Teddy) and Arthur, who were in the Battle of the Somme. The Facebook page for Remuera Heritage has 115 followers and I post regular updates on heritage in Remuera and heritage in general. If you are on Facebook, please have a look. The e-newsletter which is now able to be delivered through the website system also reaches about 130 people and is a good way to promote Remuera Heritage. We have also provided the information for the heritage plaques being placed on Remuera’s oldest buildings in the shops. 

Remuera Railway Station 

Remuera Heritage continues to support The Remuera Railway Station Preservation Trust in its efforts with Auckland Transport to restore this unique island station for community use. David Pittman is currently getting things shipshape so that we can talk to Auckland Transport about funding for the restoration of the interior. 

Members 

I’d like to note the passing of 2 valued members – Thelma Down who with her husband Trevor were members from the beginning of Remuera Heritage, and also Richard Hanna in 2015. 

Management Committee.

Finally I would like to thank the wonderful committee: Annette Jackman as secretary, Margaret Harris as treasurer, Terry Sutcliffe, Bryan Haggitt, Brian Cooper, Brett Logan, David Pittman, Sue Johnston & Sue Jackson of Remuera Library, who provide us with this wonderful venue. Also our thanks to Viv Logan and Jenny Haggitt who provide delicious food and drink for our very hospitable and welcoming meetings. We need some new members on our committee – the society is at a very exciting stage in its development and we want to maintain our informative and social programme of events. I hope you will consider getting involved.  

Sue Cooper, Chair 5 May 2017

Remuera Heritage will hold its 2017 Annual General Meeting for members  - this is the 10th anniversary of the creation of Remuera Heritage Inc and will be a look back at the last 10 years and a look to the future.

WHEN: Friday 5 May 2017 at 6.30pm

WHERE: Remuera Library, 429 Remuera Rd, Remuera, Auckland 1050

Light refreshments will be served  - all members welcome.

College Rifles rugby club's 2017 commemorative Anzac jersey, worn by the premier men's team on the 100th anniversary of losing soldiers in World War I.

An Auckland rugby club has continued a touching tradition that pays homage to players who died in World War I.

On Saturday afternoon, College Rifles' premier men ran out onto their home ground in Remuera with the 2017 instalment of their Anzac commemorative jersey.

The jersey featured names of both soldiers and battles from 1917 as the club remembered events that took place 100 years ago.

Each year, since 2014, the club has worn a different commemorative jersey on the weekend before Anzac Day. Each jersey marks battles that took place 100 years earlier and the soldiers who lost their lives.

This year, they honoured the Battle of Messines, Battle of Passchendaele, Battle of Broodseinde, Battle of Ayun Kara, and the Polderhoek Attack.

College Rifles lost 17 members through those battles.

General manager of the club Keith Ratcliffe said it's a tradition that's not lost on the players, and the whole day takes things well beyond just a game of rugby.

"One of the boys nearly cried because he got injured and couldn't play this particular game," Ratcliffe said.

"It just means that much to them.

"They are getting far more aware of what it means, especially to the club."

College Rifles haven't lost a game in each of their four commemorative jerseys, with next year's 2018 edition due to be the last with the war ending in 1918.

Head coach John Clough said that achievement, and the pressure of the occasion is something he embraced with his team.

"We all recognise and enjoy the history of the jersey and the club," Clough said.

Rifles lost 54 men during World War I. In fact, the club temporarily shut down because it didn't have enough numbers to field teams, due to the 314 away on duty.

When the club re-established a premier team in 1919, they won the Auckland competition.

And they topped off Saturday's Anzac match with an impressive 60-10 win over Papatoetoe to retain the Fred Allen Trophy.

Clough said it was a result which signified where the team was heading this season.

"We've worked really hard, and I wouldn't say the result was simply good fortune," Clough said.

Elsewhere in the Auckland Rugby premier competition, University weathered a tough Ponsonby outfit to win 20-12.

Meanwhile Grammar TEC remained undefeated with their 29-19 win over Waitakere.

SAM HEWAT/FAIRFAX NZ
EAST & BAYS COURIER 28 APRIL 2017

There is a short church service at St Aidan's at 9.30am on ANZAC Day April 25th 2017 which includes gathering round the memorial cross/cenotaph for The Ode of Remembrance (from Laurence Binyon's poem For the Fallen) and the last post. People are invited to lay wreaths and poppies in remembrance. 

 See the Remuera Heritage website for profiles of Remuera servicemen and nurses who served in WW1 at http://www.remueraheritage.co.nz/people 

2017 is the 100th commemoration of the Battles of Messines and Passchendaele, where 846 young New Zealand men died. In terms of lives lost in a single day, the Battle of Passchendaele on 12th October 1917 remains the darkest day in New Zealand’s post-1840 existence. 

Read here about the Boucher brothers, who are remembered with a plaque on St Aidan’s Church wall.

The Field of Remembrance Trust has created a field of white crosses in the Auckland Domain in front of the Auckland War Memorial Museum. The 2015 Field was established in the Auckland Domain with 814 named crosses commemorating the men and women from the Auckland region who died in 1915. In 2016 a further 857 crosses were added named for the men who died in 1916. 

In 2017 another 1146 crosses have been added. Twenty four Remuera names were found with a cross: others may be included but the crosses are not placed alphabetically by surname or numerically by enlistment number, making it difficult to locate a particular serviceman or woman. 

See the list of 24 names here:  

1. George Edmund Vernon Aimer

2. Harold Gordon Allen

3. Norman James Beattie 

4. Arthur Birnie 

5. Robert Birnie 

6. Erni Bond 

7. Edward Arthur Craig

8. Arthur Frederick Crowhurst 

9. Samuel Alfred Crowhurst 

10. Thomas Grey Culling 

11. John Stewart Dagg 

12. Donald Buckland Gorrie 

13. John William Gorrie 

14. Leonard Richard Grimwade 

15. William Edmond Hartland 

16. Thomas Douglas Hutcheon 

17. Gordon Harrison Larner 

18. George Leo McCabe 

19. Robert Roderick Creighton Corbett McFarland 

20. Ernest Pountney 

21. Albert Ernest Pratt 

22. Robert Jackson Proude 

23. Horace Howard Wattam 

24. William Henry Williams

On the 2nd April we visited the Bruce McLaren Trust museum above Remuera Upland Motors 590 Remuera Rd where Bruce and sister Jan lived. Jan McLaren talked about the remarkable racing career of her brother who became a world class international motor racing driver, engineer and designer whose name is still used in Formula 1 motor racing today. 

The 1920s building has been bought by Charles Richards who plans to carry out seismic strengthening of the building, add another storey of flats on top and turn the garage into a café. The museum has to move out for 12 months but hopes to be back in 2018. See the photos here of the visit.

Come and visit the living working memorial to Bruce McLaren and the McLaren Team heritage. 

We will be hosted by Bruce McLaren's younger sister Jan McLaren in the museum above Remuera Upland Motors. 

When: Sunday 2nd April 2017 from 2 - 4pm 

Where: McLaren Trust at 1st Floor above Remuera Upland Motors 590 Remuera Rd 

RSVP to Annette Jackman: va.j@xtra.co.nz or phone 523 3614 The Museum is in a small space, so please rsvp as soon as possible.
 Bruce McLaren was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1937 and was killed tragically whilst testing one of his cars at Goodwood circuit, England in June 1970. From the young school boy with Perthes Disease, strapped to a metal frame at the Wilson Home in Takapuna, Auckland, to a world class international motor racing driver, engineer and designer whose name is still used in Formula 1 motor racing today, is a remarkable achievement. 

13 February 2017 Press release by the Character Coalition
Today's decision by the High Court in Auckland to disallow the Character Coalition's appeal against parts of the Unitary plan means thousands of homeowners have been denied a say in what happens to the streets they live in.

Character Coalition chairperson Sally Hughes said "While we accept the Judge's decision, we are very disappointed with the outcome.  We do not feel that the 29,000 homeowners, on whose behalf we made the appeal, have had an opportunity to be heard."

"It will now be death by a thousand cuts as developers move in over time, and destroy the character of some of Auckland's most beautiful streets. Read more on the Character Coalition website.

Notable successes in Remuera are:

Upgrade from Category B to A on the council’s Historic Heritage Schedule:

• Remuera Railway Station and Signal Box

• Remuera Library

• Mainston Manor/ Ellerslie House, Remuera’s oldest house built in 1853 by Robert Graham.

The eastern suburbs have seen significant removal of the single house zone to be replaced with the increased density of the Mixed House Suburban or Urban zones. This will lead to the development of individual properties being intensified to 3 stories, alongside single houses, destroying the collective value and amenity of the area which the community has strived to protect for future enjoyment. Urban amenity has to be collective – individual owners cannot do both high density and still expect to retain the existing character and amenity. 

The Independent Hearing Panel wrote “there was an insufficient basis to restrict the demolition of buildings based solely on their age. The argument that the unitary plan should, on an alleged precautionary basis, manage the demolition of buildings in areas that may have ‘unidentified significant historic heritage places or unidentified ‘special’ character areas’ was not supported by evidence of the likelihood that such values would be identified, or that the rate of demolition required such a restriction”. 

During the Unitary Plan process, Auckland Council said it was not resourced to carry out character area surveys to identify significant historic heritage places or unidentified ‘special’ character areas’ but would cooperate with community groups to do this. Remuera Heritage offered its help to the Heritage Dept. and through Councillor Cameron Brewer but we never heard back. Council staff had countered to the IHP that a plan change to add or extend character areas should be ready for notification in early 2017. RH gave evidence of the removal of character buildings from Remuera South, parts of Remuera north and Newmarket to no avail. 

As a result, The Panel has kept most of the currently notified special character overlay over Auckland, with one notable exception – it has been almost erased throughout all the eastern bays, including Remuera, Orakei, Kohimarama, Mission Bay and St Heliers. The pre-1944 demolition control overlay has been removed in its entirety and there is now no protection for any identified or non-identified character buildings in Auckland. The pre-1944 overlay was only an interim measure to allow for the identification of character housing, so now demolition is a permitted activity. 

AT RISK: The Remuera Library which is a listed and protected heritage building has now been zoned as being part of the town business centre and buildings either side have been upzoned to THAB (Terrace Houses and Apartment Buildings). This includes Cotter House, another listed heritage building (the 5th oldest house in Auckland) and the Hearing Association house at the top of St Vincent Avenue. This zoning change does not help the protection of these historic heritage places. It is impossible to understand why there is such a lack of consistency here in having Category A status for a brick public building such as a library and a historic heritage house when the underlying zoning anticipates high density. Houses such as Cotter House are now at significant risk of demolition and redevelopment. 

Gains in Remuera have been the inclusion of the Extent of Place around the Chapel of the Holy Child (formerly the stables) at Kings School to include The Towers, the 1855 Graham/ McCosh Clark house. The Remuera Railway Station has been upgraded from Category B to A: “Given its integrity, it’s now rarity, having an integral and original relationship with its signal box, and being the best of Auckland‘s historic suburban stations, it warrants elevation from a B to A in its heritage categorisation. Accordingly, the Panel supports the scheduling of the ‘Remuera Railway Station and Signal Box’ as Category A and adopts the extent of place and description proposed by Heritage New Zealand.” 

The volcanic viewshafts fared better than heritage. Most (though not all) proposed viewshafts have been retained; a few have been deleted, and there is a new category of locally significant viewshafts. One of the differences between regional and local is that if a proposed building would penetrate a regional viewshaft it is a non-complying activity, whereas for a local viewshaft it is a Restricted Discretionary activity. The Panel has provided the Council with maps which represent its recommendations. 

To view what these recommendations may mean for Remuera and your own property, click here and here.

Dress up in the period of 1920s to the 1970s when the Remuera Tudor theatre provided entertainment for Remueraites. Get out your furs and hats, suits and costumes for an elegant night at the movies. 

From director Beaumont Smith about a “silly ass” Englishman who inherits a sheep station in New Zealand and meets and falls in love with a great New Zealand girl Kiwi McGill. 

When: Friday 9th June 2017 at 7pm 

Where: St Mark’s Church hall, 95 Remuera Road 

Refreshments provided from 7pm and during the intermission 

Prizes for best dressed male and female in period costume. 

Tickets: $20 for members; $25 for non-members RSVP for catering purposes to Annette Jackman at va.j@xtra.co.nz 

Payment by bank deposit 06-0257-0198761-00 Remuera Heritage Inc. 

The Tudor theatre opened in June 1926, at 333 Remuera Rd, owned by Fuller Hayward Theatres Corporation and F.G. Mumford. The interior was mostly in a Tudor style with lots of dark wood and Tudor rose emblems, with the exterior illuminated by floodlights at night. It seated 1066 people and was the centre of social life in Remuera until it closed in 1972. It was demolished in 1980, to be replaced by the Tudor Mall.

Images:

Tudor Theatre Remuera MOTAT 13-2233 1930.   Tudor Theatre at night 1930s J G McGuire Walsh Memorial Library MOTAT 

Remuera Heritage will hold its 2017 Annual General Meeting for members  - this is the 10th anniversary of the creation of Remuera Heritage Inc and will be a look back at the last 10 years and a look to the future.

WHEN: Friday 5 May 2017 at 6.30pm

WHERE: Remuera Library, 429 Remuera Rd, Remuera, Auckland 1050

Light refreshments will be served  - all members welcome.