Victoria Street Buildings

In 1903 pharmacist E B Hill had his new two storey shop built in brick - one of the first brick buildings in Cambridge. Today this building is still a chemist – Munro Burgess.

Two new shops to the east were built just after World War One as a clothing shop and a jeweller - bookshop.

Upstairs on the corner triangle was a tearooms and many wedding receptions were held there with memories still vivid.

In the centre of Victoria Street is the Calvert Building. Originally a large store carrying haberdashery, fabric, clothes, manchester and furniture. It was founded in the early 1890s by Samuel Howard and when bought by R T Tudehope in 1902 he soon had a new brick building. The business Geo Calvert & Co Ltd closed in 1985 and their re known cash railway system is now at the Cambridge Museum (www.cambridgemuseum.org.nz). This building was re developed in late 1980s and now houses a number of small shops.

Next door the two storey Calvert’s Chambers was built 1925 with two shops downstairs (now Fran’s Café) and offices upstairs.

Most of the colonial wooden buildings along the north side of Victoria Street were replaced in the late 1920s early 1930s. More substantial brick and concrete – (and a bylaw preventing wooden buildings) gave Cambridge some very ornate buildings.

The building on the corner of Victoria and Alpha Streets was built in 1931 and won a Waipa Heritage Award for preservation in 2009. The ‘butcher shop’ for the Farmers’ Meat Co next door was built at the same time.

In 1929 Waghorne and Easters built a double building with a Spanish style tile ornamentation on the roof. The doorway tiles and pressed metal verandah are still unique features of the building. B Nixon built a very ornamental building of three shops and further down F Veale built another ornate building (Wrights’ Bookshop). The pediments of these shops give Victoria Street a very picturesque skyscape seen to advantage, through the trees in winter.

Eris Parker

Cambridge Museum  

www.cambridgemuseum.org.nz