North Shore Heritage Thematic Review Report ... - Auckland Council

The earliest period of marked growth was the 1870s when timber was a major export and the main housing
types were the cottage and villa, including the bay villa. These houses were designed to be seen from the
street, set behind their picket fences and gardens. The floor plan orientated the main rooms towards the
street frontage and the houses were bisected by a passage running from front to back, terminating with the
kitchen and other service rooms, housed under a rear lean-to. Most of these houses were built from stock
plans supplied by the timber companies. Some speculative builders bought neighbouring sections and built
nearly identical villas.
While the late 1880s-1890s recession saw slow residential growth, the first decades of the 20 th century
showed a marked increase in house building. The Californian bungalow became popular, as well as the
English Cottage and Spanish Mission styles. 38 Most bungalows were constructed after WWI, but some
early pre-war examples exist. In this period the villa influence began to wane, and the transitional villa
style emerged, having elements common to both styles, often mixed.
Fig. 20. Clarence Street bungalow, Salmond Reed Architects.
The bungalow style generally saw high villa ceilings lowered, casement windows replaced double hung,
simplified roof forms and lowered roof pitches as well as porches in place of verandas. The Californian
bungalow, with its relaxed floor plan, carefully planned kitchens and bathrooms, and good
interior/exterior connections with porches suited the informal New Zealand lifestyle, and was justifiably
popular with the general public. Architects, however, preferred the English Cottage style, which reflected
New Zealand‟s British origins, rather than the „imported‟ American or Spanish styles.
Although plan book housing was common, recognised architects such as Edward Bartley, JM Walker, WA
Cumming, Fred Souster, HL Bates, Daniel B Patterson, J Sholto Smith, T Coulthard Mullions, Cecil
Trevithick, RW Kibblewhite, RA Abbot, MK Draffin and H Rhodes Robinson also designed buildings in
Devonport.
Several reports on housing in Devonport in the late 1920s and 1930s deplored the abominable conditions
and overcrowding. 39 A new Government housing policy led to land being bought in the Narrow Neck area
for public housing. The first State house on the North Shore was tenanted in September 1936 at 27 Niccol
38 Jeremy Salmond, „Architecture‟, The Hundred of Devonport, p103.
39 „A Chronology of the Borough Council‟, The Hundred of Devonport, p.152.
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