Looking south along old Customs Street West, Freemans Bay
1912 (Henry Winkelmann) - 2022

Drag the slider to compare two photographs

1912 image: Henry Winkelmann | Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1-W0881

This section of old Customs Street West no longer exists, and uncertainty about Winkelmann's exact camera position in 1912 make this comparison only an indicative approximation. I suspect that Winkelmann's position in 1912 would have been somewhat to the left of that shown by the 2022 image here, probably somewhere inside the modern building seen here (which occupies the corner of present-day Fanshawe and Halsey Streets).

The prominent building at centre in the 1912 image is Freeman's Hotel, still present though hard to make out through the trees and other clutter in the modern scene. Winkelmann recorded this view in his index ledger as ‘Customs St W old buildings to be demolished’. The buildings backed on to the eastern end of Victoria Park, occupying, roughly, present-day Halsey Street. So Customs Street West seems to have been somewhat to the east of Halsey Street, closer to the old line of the foreshore. Winkelmann's camera position, at this point where Customs Street West turned to the south, was thus somewhat to the south and east of the modern south-eastern corner of Fanshawe and Halsey Streets. Perspective and parallax clues in the appearance of Freeman's Hotel seem to confirm this.

Below is a detail of a 1905 Winkelmann image looking north-east from the chimney of the City Destructor and thus looking at the backs of the row of buildings in the 1912 image. The circle indicates the approximate location of what I assume to be Winkelmann's 1912 camera position, in the vicinity of the leaning power pole.


Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1-W0999 (detail)

Incidentally, the image above is one plate from an overlapping series which together form a superb panorama; it can be viewed in all its glory on Auckland Council's Kura Heritage Collections Online site at this link:
kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/collection/photos/id/107387/rec/6

Below, a detail from Winkelmann's 1912 image. The slope of Victoria Street West is visible at the far end of Customs Street West.


Below, a recent picture of Freeman's Hotel.