Former cop shop is the best bar none

Ross Healy says the historic building has cost $1 million to restore. Photo / Richard Robinson

The historic former Wharf Police Station on Auckland's waterfront opens next Friday as a bar after a $1 million makeover.

Brew on Quay will operate from the old building, preserved as part of the $1 billion Britomart precinct.

Peter Cooper's Cooper & Company is restoring the buildings in the precinct, apart from the station, which Phillimore Properties owns.

That building formed part of a deal in which Cooper and Phillimore - part of the winning Britomart consortium with Multiplex - parted company a few years ago.

In 2006, Phillimore got the station and left the consortium. The company is now finishing work, ready for next week's re-opening.

Phillimore director Ross Healy yesterday estimated the trophy building had cost $1 million to restore and might now be worth about $4 million.

The most eastern old building in Britomart is registered as Category I by the Historic Places Trust and is a category B protected building in Auckland City's operative district plan.

The building has a new Marseille tile roof and a firm of specialist stonemasons from Gisborne was employed to clean the brick facade and secure the decorative brick parapet on its Quay St frontage.

Mr Healy said the structure had three distinctive areas:

The northern/Quay St area which was relatively intact as police front offices, lobby, reception counter and strong room. This area has the original police desk as well as finely detailed mahogany office partitions which form part of the new bar.

The middle section has the original toilet block and a courtyard. That now remains as it was in 1921 when parts of it were changed. The toilet has been renovated.

The southern section, originally the sugar store and cart dock, is now refurbished in a modern style. The ceiling and roof were demolished as part of Phillimore's changes and a new mezzanine floor with outdoor terrace has been built.

The building was put up for the Colonial Sugar Refining Co just over a century ago but became too small for that business.

In 1961, the site was transferred to the Crown for a police station.

"The wharf police were responsible for administration and relief staff on the islands in the Hauraki Gulf as well as being the crew base for the police launch Deodar," Mr Healy said.

"Duty officers based at the wharf station patrolled an area from the railway station to the downtown area and maintained security around the port. "

The Ministry of Works decided in 1986 the building had outlived its recommended structural life, Mr Healy said, and the police left it in July 1993.

WHARF POLICE STATION

* Part of the Britomart precinct.
* On the corner of Quay St and Britomart Place.
* Built during 1903 and 1904.
* Land owned by Auckland City.
* New bar will open next week.