Historic wall coming down

Caryn Wilkinson Reporter from Community News

The historic bluestone wall gracing Albert St is now coming down brick by brick.

The 139-year-old wall in Auckland's CBD is being painstakingly dismantled to make room for the country's largest infrastructure project, the City Rail Link.

It will take about three months to deconstruct the wall which will eventually be moved one metre east towards Queen St.

Stonemasons are cutting it into 1800 blocks, numbering each block and storing them safely off-site until the wall is rebuilt in 2023.


“It’s going to be a bit like fitting a jigsaw together except all our pieces will be rocks, not bits of cardboard or wood, there will be no missing pieces and we’ll know where every piece fits,” said Aotea Station manager for the Linke Alliance, Matt Sinclair.

The bluestone wall was built from local material by contractor Daniel Fallon in 1881 during a time of major infrastructure expansion in Auckland.

The wall's underground public toilet was one of the city's first.

The wrought iron railings, piers and the ornamental arch over the stairs on the side of the wall are some of Auckland's last remaining examples of street furniture dating back to the Victorian age.

The public toilet, which has been closed for some time, will not reopen because of space constraints.

But the toilet's cast iron screens will be restored and reinstated on site.

The toilet's entrance will be used as a maintenance access for the City Rail Link.

The new 150-metre long section of tunnel being built by the Link Alliance will connect the new Aotea underground station with the tunnel already built from Britomart Station.

Shakespeare Tavern owner Sunny Kaushal said the iconic pub will remain open during the wall deconstruction nearby.

"We have to otherwise we can't survive at all because we're struggling with mounting debts and also keeping the staff who we've been trying to support for the last three and a half years," he said.

"We've been affected by the City Rail Link really seriously, then Covid happened," he said.

"This has been a double whammy for us."

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