Kitchen Building Whanganui

The A E Kitchen building:
It is easy to see from its ornate frontage that this is an imposing Edwardian building. Beneath the skin is a remarkable restoration which can be seen partly exposed in the shops on the ground floor. The whole building has been framed from within with huge steel beams. It has an elevator at the rear for the apartment upstairs and the upstairs apartment has been tastefully updated but keeps its sense of period proportion. The restoration is the work of heritage architect Bruce Dickson and was commissioned by the owner Kerry Girdwood.

A E Kitchen who arrived in Wanganui in 1858 constructed these premises for his dispensing chemist business. He and his family lived in the elegant upstairs apartment over the shop. The building’s imposing baroque frontage and two side walls are brickwork while all the interior and rear of the building are timber construction. The upstairs apartment is reached by an imposing grand stairway complete with a magnificent sweeping balustrade. The front rooms have ornate pressed tin ceilings, flush wall linings with ornate skirtings and trim around the doors and windows. The other spaces are lined with vertical match lining contrasted with dark-stained dados. There is a small Juliet balcony overlooking the street and a larger balcony at the rear of the building.