Bird Cage
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The Birdcage, formerly the Rob Roy Hotel (R11/2499), a heritage building built in 1885-1886 (Clough & Mace 2005, updated 2009). The Birdcage is registered by the NZHPT (Category II, No.636) and is scheduled on the District Plan (Category B). The Birdcage is situated on the corner of Franklin Road and Drake Street opposite Victoria Park Market. In order to preserve this building of high heritage significance, the decision was made to shift the Birdcage (excluding the basement) to a new site 40m along Franklin Road. The building will then be relocated slightly north of its original location following completion of the tunnel.
The building conservation was outlined in the conservation plan (Mathews & Mathews 2003), and Salmon Reed Architects provided a heritage impact assessment (November 2009). Works taking place at the Birdcage to both prepare the building and the surrounding grounds for moving are being monitored under the provisions of Authority No. 2010/206 issued by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.
History of the Birdcage
The following excerpt is derived largely from Clough & Mace 2005 (updated Nov 2009).
The Birdcage was originally known as the Rob Roy Hotel due to an earlier hotel which was located close to Victoria Street. The site of the first Rob Roy Hotel in Freemans Bay was sold by the crown in 1853 to spinster Catherine Marks for £74. She sold it nine years later to William Morrin, making a tidy profit of £426. In May 1862 the property was leased to land agent Michael Wood for a term of five years with a right to purchase. By 1865 a wooden hotel, known as the “Rob Roy” had been erected on the site and was being operated by James Rosie. Patrons could come to the hotel by road or water as the property was close to Freemans Bay shoreline. In 1867 the property was sold to merchant David Nathan. In 1881 the licensee was teetotaller William Regan, who would operate the business for the rest of the 19th century.
In 1885 the Rob Roy Hotel saw many changes. In September it was sold to Samuel Jagger who made plans for a new Rob Roy Hotel on a new site . The following month tenders were called by the architects, E. Mahoney & Sons. On 10 October 1885 the New Zealand Herald gave details of the new hotel which would soon grace the site:
‘It will be three storeys in height, including basement, and
constructed of brick, the basement storey of blue stone, with concrete
foundations. The basement will be 7 feet 6 inches in clear, ground
floor 14 feet, and first floor 12 feet 6 inches. It is intended to carry
the present culvert right under the hotel and through the allotment,
so as to have a perfect drainage system. The basement storey
comprises kitchen, pantry scullery, store-rooms, beer and coal
cellars and servant’s dining-rooms. On the ground floor will be a
bar (on street corner), three sitting-rooms, serving room – latter has
lift from basement. A commodious staircase gives access to the first
floor. There will be a large sitting-room on the corner with oriel
window, and nine bedrooms, bath-room, linen closet, & c. The bar
will be handsomely fitted up, and all the rooms on the ground floor
have dados. The facade is to be in Italian style, pressed red brick
with white stone facings, and the whole of ornamental design. It will
be surmounted with a parapet with entablature.’
By the end of January 1886 the hotel had nearly been completed by the contractors Cleghorn & Rosser. It occupied a prominent corner site fronting Franklin Road and Drake Street (Figure 1).
By 1905 numerous other buildings had been constructed in the area, The level of Franklin Road also appears to have been raised, although the lot behind the Birdcage appears unchanged at this point, still sited at a lower level than the houses. In 1969 the east wing was extended and the name of the hotel was later changed to “The Birdcage”. The hotel continued to serve the people of Auckland through the late 19th and 20th centuries, and most recently this century.
