Sir George Troup (1863–1941) is the building’s architect. He studied engineering, surveying and architecture in Scotland, coming to Aotearoa New Zealand after his mother’s death in December 1883. His background in architecture and engineering soon saw him involved in the growing railway network in Aotearoa New Zealand, and by 1888 he was transferred to the Wellington Head Office. His most important extant building is the Dunedin Railway Station which was opened in 1906.
Troup retired from the Railways in 1925 and was soon elected to the Wellington City Council, where he became Chairman of the Works Committee. His major projects were Rongotai Airport and the second Mount Victoria Tunnel. In 1927 he was elected Mayor. In this period, he had built a new railway station for Pōneke Wellington, using a design he had drawn in 1910.
In 1931 Troup was defeated in an election and retired from public life. He died in 1941. Troup’s influence on railway building design can still be seen throughout the country. The years 1904 to 1944 were referred to as the ‘Troup Period’.
Troup’s work became influential in the 1890s. He standardised railway building design plans: there was A class, a simple lean-to, and B and C classes, which were gable-roofed buildings of different sizes and island stations. Newmarket is an island station.
A railway station such as Newmarket’s would have been built with a telegraph room, a large room for inward and outward parcels, a ticket office and lobby opening on both sides, a ladies’ waiting room and toilets. An entry in the Journals noted the addition of a reading room and library at Newmarket in 1908 – very soon after it was completed.
In its heyday the station would have had considerable social and commercial importance. Being on a junction it was locally significant to those who wished to travel to outer suburbs, and nationally, to the long-distance traveller. For freight, both local and national use would have been substantial. The nearby railway workshop would also have contributed to the comings and goings at the station. From the 1960s, increased road haulage and ownership of cars saw the gradual decline of this status.
This is the largest Troup Period station in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. The roof ridge gives it architectural interest, the length of the building is impressive, and it has a significant social and commerical history. However, the building has not been in use as a station for a number of years, having been deconstructed and placed in storage when Newmarket Station was rebuilt into a transit hub in 2008–10. The building's exterior was restored and rehomed on the Parnell Station platform in 2016–17.
back to About the project