Looking across Queen Street towards Durham Street West
Early 1880s (Burton Brothers) - 2022
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Historical image: Queen Street, Auckland. From the album: Views of New Zealand Scenery, circa 1880, Auckland, by Burton Brothers studio. Te Papa (O.008878)
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Below: the photographer exposed at least one other plate of this scene. The dapper gent in the bowler and the young boy standing outside the City Buffet Luncheon Rooms in the scene above are now mingling with a bigger crowd around the entrance to the British Hotel on the street corner (click for transition).
Historical image: Queen Street, Auckland. Burton Brothers, Te Papa (C.011238)
Overhead wires visible in the 1880s images are presumably telephone lines; the first telephone exchange in Auckland was set up in 1881.
Two doors up the street from the British Hotel is a sign advertising John Leydon Auctioneers. Research turned up this delightful report in the New Zealand Herald of 25 July 1884:
