100 trips for 100 years with Dunedin on Foot: Day Fifty Four CBD

Today was one of my shortest walks and it was also one where I walked past a lot of older buildings. I walked 8 streets today.

674. View Street
675. Moray Place
676. Harrop Street
677. Lower Stuart Street
678. Dunbar Street
679. Burlington Street
680. Dowling Street
681. Stuart Street

As my walk was around the streets that surround the Octagon, about the only views I got today was of traffic and buildings. The one view I did get was from the corner of Stuart Street and Moray Place, near the Town Hall where I was happy to get a good view of Mt Cargill.

Today I walked past First Church which is the first Presbyterian church in Dunedin. Actually it is the third, First Church and is in a different location to the other two First Churches but it's still called First Church. The original First Church was opened in 1848 and was a wooden church that was built within six months of the first boats arriving in Dunedin. In 1850 a larger stone church was built on the same site but was then destroyed by fire in 1865. The First Church you see today was opened in 1873 and stands on the base of Bell Hill. Bell Hill divided the heart of city in two and the hill was excavated and much of the fill was used to reclaim the land below the hill.

I also walked past the city's historic court house which was designed in 1899 and opened in 1902. It was used continuously as a court house until 2011 when it deemed an earthquake risk. After strengthening and renovations it was back to being used as a court house in 2018 and has four court rooms including the high court.

Conveniently beside the court house is the Dunedin Prison. The prisoners didn't have far to travel for their day in court with a passage between the two buildings.

The city's prison predates the court house and was built in 1896. It was used continuously as a prison until 2007 when all prisoners were moved to the new purpose built Otago Corrections facility near Milton. The prison housed both men and women in 56 cells and now that it is empty, every Saturday there are tours of the building including the cells.

Dunedin Prison did not just house prisoners, in total there were four hangings at the prison. The last one in 1898. All were hung for murder and their bodies were originally buried onsite. It is believed that many years later, they were exhumed and buried in an unmarked grave in the Northern Cemetery. You can see the windows of some of the cells from the street. It doesn't look like it would have been a very nice place to stay and being on State Highway One, I imagine it was also very noisy.

Across the road from the Court House and prison is the impressive Dunedin Railway Station which is one of the city's most prominent architectural landmarks. It is the most photographed building in New Zealand and was opened in 1906. Today there are no passenger trains and only a few freight trains pass the station.

Another building of significance that I walked past today is the Dunedin Town Hall. Built in 1880, even though the Town Hall was more a block of offices than a town hall, it did have a clock tower and bells that chimed on the hour.

In 1930, the building was extended to include a concert hall with a stage, organ and amphitheater with two tiers of seating.

Another lovely old building that I walked past was the Fortune Theatre on Stuart Street and Moray Place. The building was originally built in 1870 as a Methodist church before becoming a live theatre in the 1970's and continued until 2018 when it closed. Now the building remains empty.

Around the Octagon and Moray Place there are a number of well kept older buildings dating back to the early 1900's and earlier. It is good to see these buildings restored and still in use and below are just a few of them.