The Gables Colonial Hospital New Plymouth | |
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General information | |
Architectural style | Gothic |
Location | Brooklands Park Drive |
Town or city | New Plymouth |
Country | New Zealand |
Coordinates | 39°04′08″S 174°04′54″E / 39.068907°S 174.08174°E |
Current tenants | North Taranaki Arts Society |
Construction started | 1847 |
Completed | 1848 |
Owner | New Plymouth District Council |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Frederick Thatcher |
Designated | 24 November 1983 |
Reference no. | 29 |
The Gables in New Plymouth's Brooklands Park was a colonial hospital originally built in Mangorei Road, on the northern bank of the Henui Stream. It was one of the four hospitals Governor Sir George Grey commissioned in the late 1840s for European New Zealanders (Pakeha) and Maori patients in New Zealand’s North Island. Now an arts centre (since 1985), the building is historically important as it reminds of the first attempt to provide quality medical care to all New Zealanders and of Governor Sir George Grey's policy of assimilation by establishing mixed hospitals. The building also has rarity value as it is the last remaining of the four original hospitals. It is architecturally important as well, being one of the earliest surviving buildings designed by an architect in New Zealand.[1]
The Gables Colonial Hospital is one of the heritage buildings of the city, registered in 1983 by Heritage New Zealand as a Category 1 Historic Place.