{{Short description|Private members' club in Auckland, New Zealand}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=April 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox building | native_name = | native_name_lang = | former_names = Royal Hotel | alternate_names = | image = The Northern Club Building 02.jpg | caption = The Northern Club building in 2011 | altitude = | building_type = | architectural_style = Italianate | structural_system = | cost = | ren_cost = | client = | owner = | current_tenants = | landlord = | location = 19 Princes Street | location_town = Auckland | location_country = New Zealand | coordinates = {{Coord|-36.848114|174.76981|display=inline,title|region:NZ_type:landmark}} | construction_start_date = | completion_date = 1867 | inauguration_date = | renovation_date = | demolished_date = | destruction_date = | height = | diameter = | antenna_spire = | roof = | top_floor = | other_dimensions = | floor_count = 4 | floor_area = | seating_type = | seating_capacity = | elevator_count = | main_contractor = | architect = Edward Mahoney | awards = | ren_architect = | ren_firm = | ren_str_engineer = | ren_serv_engineer = | ren_civ_engineer = | ren_oth_designers = | ren_qty_surveyor = | ren_awards = | embedded = {{designation list|embed=yes|designation1=NZ Category I|designation1_number=663|designation1_date=24 March 1988}} | website = https://northernclub.co.nz | references = {{NZHPT|663|Northern Club Building}} }} '''The Northern Club''' is a private members' club in Auckland, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, today it has more than 2,000 members,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/history/news/article.cfm?c_id=500832&objectid=10681968 |title=Historic city clubs merge as membership shrinks - History - NZ Herald News |publisher=The New Zealand Herald |date=2010-10-21 |accessdate=2010-10-29}}</ref> drawn from the city's professional and business community. The club's main building is designated as a Category I historic building by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historic.org.nz/TheRegister/RegisterSearch/RegisterResults.aspx?RID=663|title=Heritage New Zealand|publisher=Historic.org.nz|accessdate=11 December 2014}}</ref>
==History== The Northern Club was founded by a group of prominent professional and business men in 1867 when the idea of gentlemen's clubs was at its peak throughout the British Empire. The club's founders agreed to purchase a handsome quarrystone building overlooking Albert Barracks in Princes Street.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.northernclub.co.nz/Our_History.php |title=Auckland | New Zealand |publisher=The Northern Club |date= |accessdate=2010-10-29}}</ref>
The four-storey building, a high-rise in its own time, was originally designed as a hotel and was built on the first section sold at Auckland's inaugural land sale in 1841.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/objectdetails.aspx?oid=20284&page=17 |title=Auckland from Northern Club Corner - Collections Online - Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa |publisher=Collections.tepapa.govt.nz |date=2009-05-20 |accessdate=2010-10-29}}</ref> Following the purchase, architect Edward Ramsey was commissioned to rearrange the hotel's internal rooms for use by the club's 120 founding members.
In 1991, the club voted to admit women and today has a membership of both men and women. Membership of the Northern Club attracted many leaders of the Auckland community, and the club has played an active and sometimes pivotal role in the history of New Zealand's largest city. In 2010, the Northern Club absorbed the Auckland Club,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/4165001/All-change-for-the-Auckland-Club|accessdate=12 June 2019|title=All change for the Auckland Club|date=24 September 2010|work=Stuff.co.nz}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10681968|accessdate=12 June 2019|title=Historic city clubs merge as membership shrinks|date=20 October 2010|newspaper=The New Zealand Herald}}</ref> adding over {{NZD|3 million}} in assets to the club, and some 250 members.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10622690 |title=Auckland Club sale finally under way - National - NZ Herald News |publisher=The New Zealand Herald |date=2010-01-28 |accessdate=2010-10-29}}</ref>
==Background== thumb|The building {{Circa|1900}}
The Northern Club building has a long history of association with Auckland's social elite. Built in 1867 as the Royal Hotel, it became a gentlemen's club two years later. Originally designed by Edward Mahoney,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historic.org.nz/corporate/registersearch/ProfessionalBio/Professional.aspx?ID=129|title=Heritage New Zealand|publisher=Historic.org.nz|accessdate=11 December 2014}}</ref> the three-storeyed building was located in a prestigious part of the settlement, close to the former Government House and provincial council. It was erected in a fashionable Italianate style, the brick structure being rendered externally to appear masonry-built. As the Royal, it replaced a timber structure of the same name and gained a reputation as the grandest establishment in town. Early tenants included the provincial government, which rented rooms as offices, and the Auckland Institute and Museum, while part of the first floor was a British Army officers' mess used by soldiers from the nearby Albert Barracks.
The Northern Club purchased the building in 1869, the club having been formed earlier in the year. Gentlemen's clubs developed in nineteenth-century Britain, enabling social and business networks to be maintained. Early members of the club included a future Prime Minister, Julius Vogel (1835–1899), and prominent businessmen such as Thomas Russell (1830–1904) and David Nathan (1816–1886). Governors of the colony were among those invited as guests, reinforcing the exclusivity of the organisation. The club refurbished the interior, and in the process reinforced social divisions through the building's layout. Service rooms for employees were located in the basement and members' reception rooms on the ground floor, while personal servants were not allowed in the upper chambers, although exceptions were made for governors.
Expansion to the facilities generally occurred during periods of economic boom. A new dining room and fifteen bedrooms were constructed at the rear of the building in 1883–1884, and accommodation for residential staff was added in the 1920s. Exclusively male in its membership for over 120 years, facilities for women were introduced only gradually. The first female member was admitted in 1990, shortly after the earliest woman after-dinner speaker, the Minister of Finance Ruth Richardson, who addressed the club in 1989. Today nearly 20 per cent of members are female.
The Northern Club building is significant as one of the oldest surviving clubs in Auckland, and one of the city's oldest hotels. It has strong links to early colonial institutions such as the provincial government and British army, as well as prominent individuals in New Zealand history.
It is the earliest building in the historic Princes Street streetscape, with significant landmark qualities that include its distinctive cover of Virginia creeper, planted in 1927.<ref name="ThenAndNow">{{cite Q|Q116870435|page=52-53}}</ref>
In 2018, The Northern Club elected its first woman President, Mrs Victoria Carter ONZM.<ref>{{cite web |title=Smashing the glass ceiling: Meet the Northern Club's first female president |website=The New Zealand Herald |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422130342/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/victoria-carter-makes-history-as-the-first-female-president-of-aucklands-northern-club/KAFVU352O6RXBPKEGDXHWS6SRU/ |archive-date=22 April 2023 |url-status=live |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/victoria-carter-makes-history-as-the-first-female-president-of-aucklands-northern-club/KAFVU352O6RXBPKEGDXHWS6SRU/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-01-24 |title=Smashing the glass ceiling: Meet the Northern Club's first female president |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/victoria-carter-makes-history-as-the-first-female-president-of-aucklands-northern-club/KAFVU352O6RXBPKEGDXHWS6SRU/ |access-date=2024-01-23 |website=The New Zealand Herald |language=en-NZ}}</ref> In 2019 the club celebrated its 150th birthday. A modern addition to the club, the Bankside Bar & Lounge designed by Nat and Pip Cheshire was opened after a blessing by local iwi, Ngati Whatua Orakei and the bishop of Auckland.
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{commons category-inline|The Northern Club Building}} *{{Official website}} *[http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=SEE_ALSO&QF0=Subjects&QI0==%22Northern+Club%22&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aucklandcity.govt.nz%2Fdbtw-wpd%2Fheritageimages%2Findex.htm&TN=heritageimages&SN=AUTO22501&SE=1770&RN=0&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=1&XP=&RF=HIOReport&EF=&DF=HIORecord&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=2&ID=&MF=WPEngMsg.ini&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=607&NR=1&NB=0&SV=0&SS=1&BG=&FG=&QS=index&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 Photographs of the Northern Club] held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Northern Club}} Category:Culture in Auckland Category:Buildings and structures in Auckland Category:Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in the Auckland Region Category:1860s architecture in New Zealand Category:Gentlemen's clubs in New Zealand Category:Auckland CBD Category:Italianate architecture in New Zealand