Farewell Bluestone Wall

The oldest piece of road construction in Auckland’s central city, Albert Street’s Bluestone Wall has now been completely removed and painstaking preserved for reconstruction down the track.

The 139-year-old wall, made out of bluestone or basalt, needed to be shifted block by block out of the way of City Rail Link (CRL) tunnels being built near the new Aotea Station.

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

The historic wall was erected on the eastern side of Albert Street between Wyndham and Victoria Streets in 1881 at a time of significant 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.

Things will not be quite the same as they were, however, when the wall is re-erected. Because of the size of the tunnel and station, the wall will have to move one metre further east – towards Queen Street – from its original location.

And the public toilet, which has been closed for some time, will not re-open. Its entrance will be used as a maintenance access for the CRL.