Guided Walk

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This is a 24 stop tour of the Cambridge city centre, starting at the Museum.

It takes about 60 minutes moving at a moderate pace over short distances. All the pavements are accessible for prams and wheelchairs.

1. The Courthouse. The triangle of land bordered by Victoria, Fort and Duke Streets was the hub of Camp Cambridge when the township was founded in 1864 as a frontier post for the 3rd Waikato Militia. The Star Redoubt then built was used by the Militia and Armed Constabulary until 1886. The Courthouse building replaced the former Officers’ Mess in 1909. It was built by local builder Fred Potts and operated as a Court until 1979. The Museum has occupied the building since 1984 and is managed by the Cambridge Historical Society. The two-cell lockup beside the Museum was built in 1905 and moved there from behind the Police Station in 1984. A millstone from Hally’s flour mill has been placed to the right of the building.

2. ‘Souter House’, on the corner of Victoria and Bath Streets was built in 1900 and belonged to the Souter family who arrived in Cambridge about 1881. Bath Street is so named because it led to a swimming area on the Waikato River. Major Wilson of the 3rd Waikato Militia lived on a property nearby called ‘Waterside’ and allowed access to that swimming area. Wilson Street is named after him.
3. The former Post Office was built in 1908. It is unusual in that it has insignia for both King Edward VII and Edward VIII, who abdicated shortly after becoming King. On the footpath outside is a surveyor’s chain mark, which consists of two brass plaques with arrows on them placed 22 yards (20.1m) apart. This is the standard length of one ‘chain’ – an Imperial measure of length used in surveying. This is one of only a few remaining marks around the country.
4. Fire Station. A volunteer fire brigade was formed in 1904 after a reliable water supply had been established. Water was pumped from Moon’s Creek to the water tower on Hamilton Road. The fire siren was installed on the Town Hall in 1922, and this is still in use. This fire station was built in the old style in 2002 and, along with modern equipment, houses a 1938 Bedford fire engine called ‘Flick’.
5. The Cambridge Primary School was established in Duke Street West in 1869, but children had been taught on and off at the Star Redoubt in Fort Street prior to that. The four gables seen today were built in 1879, 1881, 1886 and 1904.
6. Skinvae in 34 Duke Street occupies the former Salvation Army Hall. The Salvation Army has been in Cambridge since 1889 and they built the hall in 1907, of totara and matai with kauri base boards.
7. This Bank of New Zealand building is the fourth BNZ premises in Cambridge. The tall three-storeyed building next to the former Salvation Army Hall was originally the bank manager’s car shed. It had two storeys added onto it, making it an interesting example of how old buildings can be recycled.
8. Hally’s Lane is named after John Hally, who arrived in Cambridge in 1867. He built and owned the original shops to the left of the lane, and lived with his wife Helen in a large house in the present car park. There were three Hally brothers and they also operated a brewery and a flour mill in Cambridge.
9. On the west side of Victoria Street, on the corner of Hally’s Lane is the ASB building originally built in 1926 by Speight Pearce Nicoll and Davys and on the opposite side of the lane is the 1913 Priestley Building first occupied by saddler Charles Priestley.
10. This elaborate two storeyed commercial building on the corner of Victoria and Alpha Streets was commissioned by Miss Frances Davies and built in 1931 by Speight Pearce Nicoll and Davys. The median strip up Victoria Street was added in 1984 to protect the street lights and make a safer crossing for pedestrians. Most of the architecture on the east side of Victoria Street is of the 1920s & 30s era. Calvert Chambers was built in 1925. George Calvert already owned the single storey building next door, which had been run as a drapery shop. Various members of the Calvert family operated the Calvert’s department store in adjoining buildings until 1984.

11. The National Hotel. There has been a hotel on this site since 1867, when the Kirkwood brothers established the Alpha Hotel. That became the Duke of Edinburgh then the first National Hotel, which burnt down in 1912. This building, designed by J Currie and built by Fred Potts, opened the next year. Further along Lake Street are the Sample Rooms. This building was constructed in 1927 by the hotel for travelling salesmen to show their wares.
12. Jubilee Gardens, in the triangle of land in front of the Town Hall, were created in 1897 to mark Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. The War Memorial commemorates local men who died in WWI and WWII, and there are memorial plaques for the South Africa, Korea, Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam wars. A 9/11 memorial plaque is in the Town Hall Plaza. The Cambridge clock tower was built by local company Speight Pearce Nicoll and Davys in 1934 after the clock tower on the Post Office was deemed unsafe and planned for demolition. After a public outcry a new clock tower was built here, with the original Post Office clock in it.
13. Victoria Square was formerly known as the Government Acre until the Queen’s Jubilee in 1897. It was then ploughed and re-grassed as a permanent place for recreation. The steps on the corner of Victoria and Alpha Streets were built to commemorate Queen Elizabeth ll’s coronation and visit to New Zealand in 1953–54.
14. St Andrews Anglican Church was designed by Auckland architect Edward Mahoney in the gothic style and built in 1881. It replaces a smaller church built in 1873, which is still visible as part of the Parish Centre and is the oldest surviving public building in Cambridge. The tall spire of the newer church contains a peel of six bells which are rung by a team of bell ringers. The way they are rung is unique in the southern hemisphere, and hard work for the ringers. The church contains a WWI war memorial window which shows New Zealand soldiers climbing the walls of Le Quesnoy in eastern France during the last week of the war. The red letterbox on the corner was installed by New Zealand Post and Telegraph in 1898 and is still in use.
15. The old Trinity Presbyterian Church was built in 1898, and is now in private ownership.
16. The Cambridge Railway line terminated here from 1884 until 1999. The kissing gates and ‘Cambridge’ sign are remnants of the railway.
17. The Town Hall was designed by Arthur Bibra Herrold after a competition was held. It was built by Chappell & Woolley in 1909. The building was also used as a picture theatre and a dance hall and during the 1918 influenza epidemic it was used as a hospital. The Cambridge i-site is housed in the old Cambridge Library. The building of this library in 1909 was funded by a grant from Scottish/American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who helped fund over 2500 libraries worldwide, including 18 in New Zealand.
18. The former Power Board Building was built by Speight Pearce Nicoll Davys in 1925, from plans by the architects Edgecombe and White.
19. The meeting hall for the Duke of Cambridge Lodge (est. 1867) was built in 1908 and has been transformed into a shop.
20.  The triangular building on the corner of Empire Street and Victoria Street was built for Priestley and Wallace in 1919, although there had been a building here since 1867. There used to be tea rooms on the top floor which were popular for wedding breakfasts.
21. The Central Court was the Central Hotel, which had been the Criterion Hotel. It was built in 1927, after fire razed the old wooden hotel, and converted into shops in 1977. The octagonal telephone box on the Empire Street corner was adapted from a 1911 plan and erected in 1990 for Telecom. Empire Street was called Brewery Street when a large brewery, run by the Hally brothers, operated there between 1872 and 1903.
22. The brick two-storeyed Legal Chambers was built in 1899 for WF Buckland who was mayor between 1898 and 1910. It was possibly the first brick building in Cambridge.
23. This Masonic Hotel replaced a timber hotel of the same name in 1912 after it was burnt down. It was built by Fred Potts.
24. Duke Street was the main street in the early years of Cambridge. The architecture along Duke Street east dates from 1928 to 1951. 55 Duke Street has an intricate pressed metal ceiling under the veranda.
25. Anzac Street was known as Chapel Street until 1916, when its name was changed to commemorate the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. The hitching rail on the corner of Duke and Anzac Streets is one of the last originals in town and harks back to days when horses were common on these streets.