Atami Bath House

Built in 1928, 217 Tuam Street was a factory, show room, and bath house before being demolished in 2011.

Tuam Street, 13 September 2008 — Atami Bath House and Affordable Elegance. Photographer (pht): Cafe Cecil, Contributor (ctb): Cafe Cecil. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Situated on Town Section 976, the property was originally listed as 130 Tuam Street. In July 1892, Eliza Beattie died at her residence at 130 Tuam Street.

By 1896, Alfred Hollobon, a plumber, gasfitter, and tinsmith, was listed as residing at the address. Alfred died in 1907, and his son, Alfred Ernest, continued the business as A. Hollobon and Son. By 1911 the property address had changed to 217 Tuam Street.

In 1928, Hammett and Sons built a cellar and factory for Alfred Hollobon at 217 Tuam Street. Above the ground floor entrance, the façade of the first floor featured four arched windows with dentil friezes. Above these were pilasters and four diamond indentations.

Alfred Ernest Hollobon died in April 1940 and the premises continued to be used as a plumbing business. In 1952, it was transferred from A. Hollobon and Son to H. E. Shadlock Limited, a firm that manufactured stoves, and was used as a demonstration centre. In January 1952, the office partitions, counter, staircase, and plate glass windows of the building were removed by T. H. Alexander Building Co Limited and offered for sale.

The company, H. E. Shadlock Limited, was eventually acquired by Fisher and Paykel, and by 1962 the building was a store for them.

In 1977, the building was owned by Ronald Charles Hill and in 1978 it was operating as Christies Model Shop. In 1984, it was the site NZ Polynova Products Limited.

The building was acquired in 1986 by Richard van Den Bos, a property investor. In that year, alterations were made to turn the building into a bathhouse. The property was transferred in exercise of sale under mortgage to Peter Lloyd Machirus in 1987. It then became the Atami Bath House which had previously been situated at 184 Hereford Street.

In 1990, ownership passed to Mahogany Hall Properties Limited. Internal alterations were made to the property in 1994. In 1998, it was in the ownership of Warwick Anthony Dominic Aiken and Russell Dillon Horlor.

The building was damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes and was subsequently demolished.