Altrans Building

John Spedding brought the lease for the site in 1905 and sold it to Whangarei Kauri gum merchant Samuel Rawnsley. Architect John Currie was commissioned to design a three storey building for the Auckland branch of Rawnsley’s business.

In 1913 Currie designed a fourth storey for the building for £1,052. Frank Winstone, grain and seed merchant purchased the building in 1920 for £11,000.

In 1937 the Newdick brothers, cake manufacturers and produce merchants, took over the building. They altered it extensively inside and out and put their bakery on the third floor and gave the building their name.

The Newdick brothers ceased trading in 1952 and the leasehold was taken over by the Crown under the Public Works Act, enabling the Auckland Harbour Board Stores Department to move in. Altrans and the New Zealand Harbour Board Workers Union occupied the building until it was acquired by the Auckland City Council and the Auckland Regional Council.