Overview
Post Office Square is a public square in Wellington, New Zealand. It is located between Customhouse and Jervois quays and was named after the nearby General Post Office building, which was built in 1888 and demolished in 1974. The square features a heritage-listed red telephone box, a France Telecom phone booth artpiece, the SkyBlues sculpture and a small building known as the Clarrie Gibbons Building. Despite the square's name, it has not been near any post offices since about the 2000s.
Location
Post Office Square is located in a triangular section of land between Customhouse and Jervois Quays. It is part of the Post Office Square heritage area, which contains several heritage buildings. The square itself sits on land reclaimed between 1857 and 1863.
History
Post Office Square is named after the General Post Office (GPO) which was situated on Customhouse Quay beside the square from 1888 until its demolition in 1974. For some time Post Office Square was considered the centre of Wellington. The square was also used in the 1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute. The last post office in the area closed in about the 2000s. Despite this, the name Post Office Square has remained. This discrepancy has led some tourists to enter the area with the expectation of finding a non-existent post office.
Red telephone box
Post Office Square contains a K2 red telephone box listed by Heritage New Zealand as a Category II historic place. It is one of about 50 red telephone boxes in New Zealand, with over half of them being replicas. Originally located on Karori Road, the telephone box was moved to the square in 1991 and was restored. The telephone box has most elements from its original K2 design, but no longer has a K2 design door or the glass "telephone" signs near the top of the structure.
Clarrie Gibbons Building
The Clarrie Gibbons Building is located in the square. It was built in 1912 at a cost of £419 for Wellington's tramway system. It functioned as a tram stop, a women's bathroom and a freight depot. It was converted in 1945 to a tobacco shop and a newsagent's shop. His son Murray began working in the building in the 1970s. He sold the company to Babu and Kamla Ranchhod in 2003. As of 2012 the building functioned as a dairy, museum and information centre.
SkyBlues sculpture
The SkyBlues sculpture by Bill Culbert was installed in Post Office Square in 2006. It consists of seven stainless steel poles that are almost tall, in a spiral arrangement. The top of each pole is surrounded by three by twisting blue lights.
France Telecom phone booth
Post Office Square has a France Telecom phone booth, made of clear glass. It is not a real telephone booth, but rather an art piece made by Elie Christiani, from the French island of Corsica. Mirrors in the booth's floor and ceiling give the appearance that it is connected by tunnel to Corsica, which is almost Wellington's antipode. There is also a New Zealand phone booth in Corsica, which plays sounds from New Zealand. The phone booths were activated in late 2001, after a being inactive for a few months due to concerns by New Zealand authorities that some Corsican sounds were too inappropriate. The France Telecom phone booth was initially expected to be operational for a few months.