Auckland's Fitzroy Hotel could soon be made historic building

By ANNE GIBSON

A year-long campaign waged by Auckland architect and historic buildings enthusiast Allan Matson is beginning to pay off.

For many months, Mr Matson has been fighting to save the old Fitzroy Hotel on Wakefield St in the central business district from being demolished to make way for a high-rise apartment tower.

The building is not on the historical lists at the Auckland City Council or the Historic Places Trust.

Mr Matson said this showed serious faults in the system which needed to be rectified.

His months of lobbying to save the building paid off yesterday when the council's regulatory and fixtures subcommittee announced it had appointed an independent commissioner to look at a resource consent application to demolish the former pub and redevelop the site into a high-rise apartment block.

Developer Golden City applied in October last year to transform the site by demolishing the Fitzroy Hotel and build the apartment block.

The council has been working on a resource consent to demolish the building without public notification. The demolition would allow the construction of the block of 65 apartments but no carparks.

The 1857 brick and plaster building now standing on the site was once owned by brewer Richard Seccombe, whose company merged with another brewery to create the forerunner of Lion Breweries.

The brick and plaster building has been vacant for some weeks and has not been used as a pub for about a century.

On Sunday, the council published a public notice stating that it wanted to schedule the Fitzroy as an historic building on its plans.

This would mean the building would be listed as of such quality and character that it should not be demolished, damaged or altered in a significant way without permission.

Yesterday's council statement was issued by city planning group manager John Duthie but although Mr Matson welcomed the news, he said the situation was not clear-cut.

"We're not out of danger yet because as I understand it from John Duthie, although there is a proposal to schedule the building as historic, no determination has yet been made by the independent commissioner on whether to publicly notify the Fitzroy's demolition and the consent for the apartment tower," Mr Matson said.

He had received many supportive emails to him at info@affectedperson.co.nz which he established to gauge the level of public disquiet at the ongoing demolition of many Auckland buildings to make way for apartment blocks.

Ian Grant of the council's heritage division has reassessed the Fitzroy and confirmed that based on the historical background supplied by Mr Matson, the building was worthy of an historic rating because it scored 57 points.

Buildings which score between 50 and 79 points can be classified as a category B building which affords the building protection under the council's district plans.

But the council said that the Historic Places Trust had not identified the Fitzroy as a building worthy of being classified as historic.