Due to the fire, regulations were instituted which required all new buildings on the Great South Road to the sea to be of brick or stone and roofed with slate, titles or metal and a volunteer fire brigade was formed immediately after the fire (and all over Canterbury) and water tanks were installed in the most vulnerable area. Timaru was rebuilt and the town greatly improved so today Stafford Street, Timaru is known for its elegant Victorian and Edwardian buildings, made of volcanic bluestone.
The Timaru Herald January 2 1869
Great Fire in Timaru, Monday, the 7th December 1868
A fire in a little over an hour swept away about 40 buildings and destroyed
at least 80,000 worth of property. The wind was blowing fiercely from the
nor'west and carried the burning embers and fired the shingle roofs of houses
200 and even 300 yards distant where the fire was raging. The Timaru Herald
office was destroyed.
The following is a list of
buildings destroyed
On the West side, Main South Road Mr D Munro's furniture warehouse Mr Kitson's offices (New Zealand Insurance Company) Mr Nelson tailor Mr Knight painter Mr Wood saddler Mr Seymour watchmaker Mr Salomon draper Mr French seedsman Mr Younghusband bookseller Mr Greer tobacconist Mr Jacobs watchmaker Mr Erskine grocer (gap of 70 yards) Mr Watkins chemist Mr Williamson's architect offices The Bank of New Zealand The Post and Telegraph offices Private cottage up George street (Mrs Chisholm and her family) Messrs Clarkson and Turnbull's warehouse (containing boots and shoe department) (small roadway between) Mr Beldy hairdresser Dr Butler chemist and duggists (Dr Butler resided on the premises with Mrs Butler and family) Messrs Clarkson and Turnbull's ironmongery store The Timaru Herald offices Mr D. Salomon draper (one portion let off by Messrs Horton and Belfield to Mr Salomon) Messrs Inwood and Bilton shop Mr Bilton bookseller Mr Byrne's private house Executors James King butchers' shop and house (Mrs King's butcher's shop) Messrs McCaa and Morgan bankers (former bakery and pastry-cook's shop) Mr Hitch blacksmith and house (tinsmith) Here the fire stayed On the East Side, Main South Road Mr Weaver tailor An empty shop Premises of the Timaru Butchering Company Mr Perry's offices The Club Hotel[The store and offices of Messrs G.G. Russell and Co. survived roof slate and wet blankets were kept on the face of the building and men posted at various places to put out the fire]
[Captain Scott who resides on the eastern or seaside of the Club Hotel - his house escaped]
[as also the stables on the hill, immediately in rear of the Club Hotel, belonging to Messrs Barton and Gardiner]Mr Mountfort photographer (soon showed only a chimney) (opposite side of street from Mr Hitch's) Mr Melton private house Mr Melton's stables (horses saved) Mr Turnbull's a fine new brick building, occupied by Frazer Bros., butchers, and Mr Pogonowski, hairdresser A small private houseThe following buildings were damaged:- Messrs Cain Munro and Co.'s warehouse Mr Hutton grocer Messrs Todd drapers Mr Green, Ship Hotel (on the same side of the street but higher up, being on the north side of Beswick street)The fire was first seen to break out in a cabinet maker's workshop, at the back of Mr D. Munro's furniture warehouse. The flames speedily caught the furniture warehouse and in a few minutes it was levelled to the ground. The fire also extended backwards and ignited some timber in the yards of Cain, Munro and Co. The house occupied by Miss Rose, standing at the back of the timber yards was saved. The house occupied by Mr Weaver, tailor was destroyed when the flames were blown across the street from Mr Knight, painter and Mr Wood, saddler. There was a 2oft gap between Mr Seymour, watchmaker and Mr Wood
A public meeting was hastily convened by the Mayor (Mr Samuel Hewlings) at the Royal Hotel. Mr Luxmore, Captain Crawford, Mr Angus MacDonald, Mr Healey, Captain Cain, Mr Woolcombe, R.N., Mr Cardale, Mr Archer, offered assistance. A committee formed. Timaru Councillors: Taylor, Cliff, George Healey, Turnbull, Duncan McLean (surgeon) and Green and the Engineer. Mr Polson's request to store fireworks at the back of the Commercial Hotel was not granted.
An inquiry into the origin of the fire.
The following jury were empanelled
F.J. Wilson, A. Menzie, A. Stevenson, H. Green (foreman), J. Simpson, S. Harding, J. Gibson, R. Bartlett, J. Shepherd, J. Gay, J. Peters, J. Ross, D. West and A. Ross.
Mr White appeared to watch the case on behalf of Mr D. Munro.
Witnesses:
Daniel Munro - cabinet-maker, living in Timaru
John Hamilton and John Jackson tapped on his window and said the workshop was on fire. My boy, William Clark was in the my warehouse at the time.
Mr Perry - appearing on behalf of the insurance companies
Cain and Munro's tank - handle of the tap gone.
Mr Flockton's well
Robert Taylor said once the stove was dangerous. Mr Wood also cautioned me.
William Nicholls worked for Mr Daniel Munro. Lit a fire to heat the glue. Shaving on floor.
John Hamilton - plasterer
Percy Goodwin was working in the workshop last week.
Verdict - Accidental
To those who have seen the town grow year by year, the calamity appears like a dream, so clean has it been swept away and reduced to a mere village, the shadow of its former self.
Timaru Courier Oct. 2009
Fire spread in minutes and left a lasting scar
WILLIAM Nicholls is not remembered as a notable character, yet he had an impact
on the town far greater than his contemporaries — he burned it down!
William Clark is sometimes blamed for the tragedy as both
Clark and William Nicholls were mentioned by witnesses at the subsequent
inquiry. It seems, however, that Nicholls was the stepson of one William Clark,
hence the confusion. He later worked for 14 years at The Timaru Herald but died
aged 28 after an illness of three days, leaving a wife and two children. In
spite of his part in the earlier conflagration, he was held in high regard.
The morning of Monday, December 7, 1868 was hot and blustery as the seasonal
nor’wester blew through the district. Daniel Munro, a cabinetmaker in the
northern part of the main street, told William Nicholls, who was working for
him, to light a fire in the stove to heat the glue-pot in the workshop behind
the furniture warehouse. William would have been about 12 at the time and was
paid 10 shillings a week to run messages and do odd jobs. He heated the glue and
took it to Munro, leaving the fire unattended for a few minutes. During his
short absence, the wind apparently came through the weatherboards (which says
something about the construction) and blew the wood shavings about, providing an
ideal starting point for the flames. Mr Munro, in the front of the shop, was
alerted at 2pm by two passers-by and found the flames already burning up the
side of the building. He rushed to the nearby water tank but found the key to
the tank was missing; it had been taken away because people had been using the
water for their horses. He then told the men in the warehouse to take the
furniture out. The flames spread rapidly in the wind and the warehouse was soon
ablaze. Within minutes, the men were so blinded by smoke that they could not get
into the back part so broke the windows to get furniture out faster and pass it
across the street. The fire then spread, igniting timber stacked in the yards of
Cain, Munro and Company. Fortunately there were plenty of willing hands
available and most of the timber was saved, as was a neighbouring house. The
warehouses of Cain, Munro and Company were now at risk, but men covered the
roofs and parts of the building nearest the fire with blankets and kept them wet
with water, which was now available. The danger was still so great that gangs of
men smashed the far windows and removed stock to a safer place. But the fire
burned furiously and soon enveloped the offices of Mr Kitson and the shop of Mr
Nelson, a tailor, in a broad sheet of flame. Nearby shops were quickly engulfed
and attempts were made to make a fire-break by pulling down Mr Wood’s shop but
before the veranda posts were cut down the building was ablaze. One or two men
throwing goods down to the street from the second storey had a narrow escape as
they stayed there till the roof and walls were on fire. The people below kept
shouting to them to warn them of the danger but the howling of the wind drowned
out their cries. They were eventually forced to quit by the blinding smoke and
flames, the building falling moment later. The flames were then blown across the
street, and spread down both sides of it. The shops and the Ship Hotel to the
north of Beswick St and opposite Munro’s furniture shop, narrowly escaped
destruction, though the shop fronts were charred and the windows broken by the
intense heat. The fire spread to the east side of the main road and it was soon
seen that the whole block was doomed. The buildings then collapsed, one after
another, like a pack of cards. Most buildings at that time were of wood and the
roofs wood shingles. This was all to change after the fire, when new, stricter
regulations for building materials came in.
Solid: The Bank of New Zealand’s replacement building was built out of
bluestone, in accordance with the stricter bylaws brought about as a result of
the fire on December 7, 1868. Picture: South Canterbury Museum 4822
Combustible: The Bank of New Zealand building before the fire. Like most
buildings of the 1860s, it was built of wood. Picture: South Canterbury Museum
4820
Timaru Courier November 05, 2009 page 6
Blaze engulfs city block, sparks new regulations
IN last week’s South Canterbury Tales, we read of how a hot,
blustery northwesterly and a boy’s brief inattention to a small fire on the
morning of December 7, 1868, resulted in a blaze that swept through Timaru.
Beginning in the workshop of cabinet maker Daniel Munro at the northern end of
the main street, the flames engulfed neighbouring buildings before sweeping
across the street. As the fire spread down both sides of the main road, it
became clear the entire block was doomed . IT was thought that the fire would
now be contained, as there was a gap of 70 yards between Mr Erskine’s shop and
Mr Watkins’ pharmacy, but the wind carried with it fragments of burning debris,
some of which fell on the Bank of New Zealand, a detached building at least 130
yards from Mr Erskine’s shop, where the fire was raging. At the same time the
fine ironmongery store of Nichollson and Turnbull, at the opposite corner,
caught fire and it became obvious that no power on Earth could save the entire
block. The Post and Telegraph was in flames before anything much could be saved,
and the batteries of the Telegraph Department were destroyed, cutting off all
communications. The whole surrounding area was now well alight and the roof of
the Bank of New Zealand was burning. Mrs Chisholm and her family had little time
to escape, but some of their property, along with all the bank’s documents, were
saved by daring volunteers. The fire was moving quickly to the top of the hill
at the south end of the town, with the wood shingle roofs all seeming to catch
fire simultaneously, as they were as dry as matchwood from the dry nor’west
wind. Dr Butler’s medical centre was next, and his family, who lived there,
barely escaped with their lives. Then came The Timaru Herald office, a
comparatively new building, where people were frantically carrying out cases of
type to an open space at the back and taking down presses. The fire went through
the presses, but one was patched up in time for the Wednesday edition, a great
effort. Mr Belfield’s dog was burnt to death as it would not leave the office
while its owner was still inside. He had actually left, but the dog was unaware
of this. The far side of the main street was now a mass of flames, with
volunteers trying to save valuable property. At North St, where buildings were
more scattered, people were desperately clearing their houses before the flames
reached them, but by six o’clock the worst was over.
A large amount of property had to be left in the streets overnight, and
volunteers kept watch over it, assisted by special constables sworn in for the
purpose. About 120 people were left homeless, mostly having only what they stood
up in. A committee was immediately set up to raise money for them and find them
somewhere to live. The jury brought in a verdict of accident, but added a rider
‘‘that greater care might have been exercised on the part of Mr Munro with
regard to the stove in his workshop where the fire originated’’. New building
regulations were soon brought in, with buildings in the town centre having to be
made of permanent materials. The result was Stafford St, much as we know it
today.
Timaru Herald, 29 June 1870, Page 5 BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.
photo George St.
As this building is finished, it may be interesting to our readers to give a
brief description of it, especially as it is undoubtedly the finest public
building at present erected in Timaru. The bank is built on nearly the same site
as the one which was destroyed in the great fire of December, 1868, but it was
not for some considerable time that preparations were made to replace the old
structure, in the winter of 1869 numerous plans and specifications were drawn
out, and at last, in November of that year, one by Mr Lawson, of Dunedin, was
decided on, and the contract of Messrs Hunter and Goodfellow, of Dunedin, was
accepted, and the building commenced.
The new bank is of blue stone obtained from the quarries near
Timaru, with dressings of Oamaru white stone, and built after the Italian style.
The plan is nearly square, with a frontage on the street of 47ft. A splayed
dressed bluestone base, and a moulded white stone plinth over is carried all
round. The lower windows are circular headed, with carved and moulded keystones
bold architraves and deep reveals, with moulded trussed sills and sunk panels
under, flanked with bold pilasters with rock-faced quoins, having a neat cornice
over running all round. The upper windows are square headed with architraves,
moulded sills, &c, pilasters on either side with rustic jointed quoins. The main
entrance to the building is approached by a massive porch built chiefly of white
stone, with panelled rustic angle pilasters surmounted with cornice and neatly
panelled angle blocks over, with stone balustrading between. The building is
finished with a bracketed frieze and a bold cornice carried on richly carved
cantilevers (all in white stone), with panelled soffit and blocking course over.
In the front face of the building a pediment is carried up with mouldings, &c.
The blue stone work is in coursed rubble, and is very neatly pointed.
On entering the building at its main
entrance, passing through an inner door of cedar with glass panels, the visitor
finds himself in a large banking room of 18ft x 28ft This room is lighted by
three large windows, one in the front face of the building, and two on its north
side. This is really a handsome room ; but we think it would be improved if the
cornice running round it was a trifle less heavy. The height of this room is
fourteen feet, and the cornice is of dimensions which would suit a room of twice
its size. The fittings here are of polished cedar (worked up in Dunedin). The
counter is carried on richly carved trusses on capped and panelled angle posts
with handsome mould nosings, the space under being panelled with bolection
mouldings. The screens to the desks are the same, but finished off with
baluatrading. Off the public rooms is the manager's room of 13ft x 13ft, and a
strong room built of 18-inch brickwork, measuring 10ft x 7ft. The manager's room
is furnished in the same style as the public room, the fittings being of
polished cedar. Besides these rooms on the ground floor, there is another small
room for the manager's private use, stationery room, kitchen, dining room, &c.
Upstairs, are the remainder. of the private apartments, consisting of a
large-sized drawing room with seven bed rooms. These upstairs rooms are 12 feet
in height.
Mr Lawson, of Dunedin, is the architect for the building, and
Messrs Hunter and Goodfellow, contractors. The whole of the work seems to have
been done in the most satisfactory manner under the general superintendence of Mr
Evans, clerk of the works.
Timaru Herald, 6 November 1907, Page 7
New York makes boast of the possession of a queer flatiron building, a
skyscraper of triangular ground plan in an a cute-angled street corner, such as
there are many of in Dunedin. Timaru is to have a flat-iron building too, but
its three stories will not make a skyscraper of it. Mr Robt. Hay, the recent
purchaser of the plot of land at the sharp-angled southern corner of Stafford
and Beswick street, is having the old-one-story buildings thereon demolished
with a view of erecting a three-storied building of shops and offices, plans for
which have been prepared, by Mr T. Coulthard-Mullions. Before describing these a
word may be said regarding the buildings which are now being rased. Mr R.
Morgan, who occupied the square stone structure as a butcher s shop for 34½
years, told a "Herald" reporter yesterday all about them. They were built in
1869, to replace structures that were destroyed by Timaru's "great fire" of
December 7th, 1868, when 42 business places and dwellings were blown out to sea
in the form of hot gases and smoke, by a fierce nor'- wester. The fire started
on the opposite side of the street, where Mr Prosser's shop now, and swept that
side of the street as far as Ballantyne's; crossed the street opposite where it
started, and also south of George street, and destroyed several buildings on
that side. The late Mr Arthur Perry, solicitor, had an office where Mr James Hay
is now located, and that went, with its neighbours. Mr Morgan was a baker in
those days, and his shop was the last southward to be burned, "and not a penny
of insurance on it—my usual luck," he remarked. A tailor named Heaver had the
corner shop at Beswick street, and he rebuilt the small wooden place lately
occupied by Mr Ronaldson, saddler. The stone building has always been a
butchers' shop. It was built after the fire by Stubbs and King for that purpose.
Mr Morgan went into it 34½ years ago as retailer for
Mr E. Acton, of Pleasant Point, who used to slaughter at home and have the meat
carted in, until the railway was opened, and the meat was then railed in. The
shop was substantially built of Timaru bluestone. The wooden buildings on either
side of it were small, but they were of totara and black pine and the timber
appears to be in good condition. A few pieces of white pine were used, and the
borer has been at work in these. Among the conversation heard about the spot
yesterday, was a statement that a very few years ago the owner sought in vain to
get £400 for the property; and the present owner had to give thousands for it!
To return to the plans for the new building, Mr Mullions appears to have made
very good use of his opportunity for showing how to utilise a site of extremely
awkward shape, the narrow angle being less troublesome than the irregular base
of the triangle. Perhaps it is a pity that the proprietor did not make the
building a four-storey one while he was about it but on this commanding site, a
three-storey building will have a fine appearance. The architect is departing
widely from the conventional. The two street frontages will each consist of a
grill of ferro-concrete, filled with windows —-a vast window of windows —as much
glass as possible is being used in the exterior, so that if fully lit up within
and blinds drawn, the building will make a great show at night. The frontages
therefore should have a bright and pleasing appearance by day. The style is
modern, with no forced ornamentation, consisting of slightly ornamented piers,
and horizontal bare framing the large windows surmounted by a heavy cornice and
"broken" pediment. The upper row of windows will be segment-arched, and this
feature is skilfully carried down and tapered off in semicircular mouldings in
the horizontal bar beneath the windows. There will be four shops on Stafford
street as many shops or offices on Beswick street and a ninth at the corner.
Near the middle of each frontage will be an entrance to a central hall, the one
on Stafford street being 10ft. wide, with handsome double doors above half a
dozen steps. From the hall a stairway and an electric lift will afford a choice
of means of reaching the upper floors. The shops are of different sizes, the two
larger each 24½ x 12 with a back room 19 x 12. The
latter are to be lit by a "light well," glass-roofed and ventilated by glass
louvres. The second floor is divided into 12 offices, from 13½
x 14 to 26 x 12, with corridors paralleel to each street converging in a hall
over the lower one, with stair and lift beside it. The uppermost floor is to be
divided into five large rooms, subdivisable at pleasure. The corner room should
be a specially desirable one from its wide double outlook. The material of the
frontages, will as above stated, be windows in a ferro-concrete framing, 5 1
inch rods running up each pier and 8 of them along each horizontal band, the two
sets tied together where they intersect, the base of the triangle will be of
brick. The interior walls will be of brick within the lower storey, in the
others of lath and plaster with fibrous plaster decorations. The walls and
corridors will be dadoed, and all doors decoratively panelled. The sanitary
arrangements on each floor are to be up-to-date (as they have to be nowadays),
and the proprietor is having both gas pipes and electric wires installed, so
that each tenant can use the light he prefers, putting in, as usual, his own
fittings. It will be seen from the foregoing description, that Mr Robert Hay is
going to erect a striking looking building, that will provide accommodation for
a good many people in business.