Boot shop and factory owner on Lambton Quay

In 1874, Robert Hannah opened his boot store on Lambton Quay, to the right of Robie Holliday’s Stationer’s Hall (see Robie’s story here: https://www.wellingtonboots.co.nz/blog/robie-holliday ).

In 1884, Hannah built a new and bigger store to the left of Stationer’s Hall. The building was design by Thomas Turnbull. It was three storeys high, built in brick and had separate entrances to the shop for ladies and gentleman. Hannah also had 100 staff working at a factory in Cuba Street producing 1500 boots on average per week. The leather was primarily supplied by Mr Hirst and Mr Tyer of ‘Kaiwarra’ and Ngahauranga.

In 1894, Hannah built a new boot factory near his Lambton Quay store. It sat at the rear of other Lambton Quay buildings and nearly went through to The Terrace. The architect of the building was once again Thomas Turnbull. Tenders were called for its construction but with none being submitted, Hannah and Turnbull agreed to act as main contractors themselves and let all the subcontracts. The building was made of brick, faced with cement. The ground floor was 45ft x 45ft and each ascending floor went a further 12ft back towards The Terrace.

The ground floor was used for storage and in order to receive the goods from the kerb in Lambton Quay, a tramway was constructed inside the building. On the third floor was a an area set aside for despatching orders to the country. There were also wooden horses for checking shoes before being stored. The fourth floor was a manufacturing floor and there was the ‘ceaseless rattle of the machines and the tap-tap of hammers’. The top floor was reserved for finishing.

All the machinery in the factory was worked by a gas engine which also ran a lift to all floors. There were fireplaces in the offices and the building was connected to the telephone exchange. Separate lavatories were provided for ‘the male and female hands’. In 1894, there were 338 hands on the payroll and the average weekly wages totalled £600. The factory produced about 3000 pairs of boots and shoes a week.

In 1909, Hannah built Hannah’s Building fronting Lambton Quay and connected to his existing factory behind. At the same time he commenced building a three-storey factory in Leeds Street and a warehouse in Cuba Steet. Presumably he moved his manufacturing business out of Lambton Quay at that time.

The Hannah’s Building was let to a variety of commercial and retail tenants initially. These included a milliner, a costumiere, an ‘art depot’, tea kitchen (cakes to order) and hairdresser. By 1913, Young’s Private Hotel was operating from the building advertising that it had 100 bedrooms.

Later images of the Hannah’s Building show its parapet was removed, presumably after the 1931 Napier earthquake. The building caught fire in 1977 and was then demolished.

Hannah asked Turnbull to design a house for him too. Antrim House, named after his birth county in Ireland,we was built in 1904. Business continued to go well for Hannah and in 1922 he commissioned the building of a new factory in Leeds Street. It was later converted to mixed-use commercial and residential use.

Hannah died in 1930 and was buried at Bolton Street cemetery, with his wife, Hannah Ferguson Hannah who predeceased him in 1928.

References:

Paperspast

https://wellingtoncityheritage.org.nz/buildings/1-150/109-r-hannah-and-co-building

https://wellingtoncityheritage.org.nz/buildings/1-150/33-antrim-house?q=