Ponsonby Post Office

It was designed by the Government Architect, John Campbell, and built by L McKinstry.[1] It cost £3700, half of which was contributed by the residents of Ponsonby.[1]

On 13 March 1920 the Postmaster Augustus Braithwaite was murdered in his home.[2] His keys were then used to rob the Post Office.[2] Dennis Gunn was found guilty of Braithwaite's murder and was executed in June 1920.[3] This was possibly the first time that a capital crime had been prosecuted with the accused identified entirely by fingerprint evidence.[4]

It was considered as an earthquake risk in the 1940s and the clocktower and building was saved from demolition.[4] In the 1970s, there were concerns again, and $11,000 worth of renovations were undertaken.[4] Auckland Council sold the post office in 1992 to Portmain Properties.[4] Auckland Council continued to lease the property until 2002 as a post office.[4] It was then sold again in 2003.[4]

Since 2002, there have been several businesses that have leased the space. In 2004, it was converted into a drinking establishment, Belgian Beer Cafe, which led to a Malcolm Walker cartoon of the post office as a burlesque dancer appearing in the Bay News.[5] The building was sold again in 2013 for $4.86 million.[6] At the end of their ten year lease, the Belgian Beer Cafe left the ground floor.[6] The building was then put back on the market in 2014, eighteen months later, with the ground floor empty and the upper floor leased to a medical practice.[6]

It most recently sold in June 2016 for $5 million.[7] Since 2020, Hotel Ponsonby, a bar, bistro and beer garden, have been based in the ground floor of the building.[8]

The building is described as a "very free, idiosyncratic example of Edwardian Baroque architecture."[1] It sits at the corner of Saint Marys Rd and College Hill with the entrance being at the apex of the triangular site.[1] It was constructed using brick walls with a cement finish on the ground floor, and pressed brick walls with cement dressing.[1] The interior walls are finished in Keene's cement and Rimu for the woodwork.[1]

In 1913, the building was modified to add a clock and to heighten the clock tower which sits over the entrance façade.[1] Above the entrance there is a large broken pediment with the royal coat of arms.[1] It is one of the best preserved Edwardian post offices in New Zealand.[1] It is, however, described as somewhat ill-proportioned.[1]

Ponsonby Post and Telegraph Office, photograph taken between 1912 and 1930 by William Archer Price.

Media related to Ponsonby Post Office (former) at Wikimedia Commons