Hawkins Store and Highbury Cash Store (243-245 Hinemoa Street)

The two buildings directly across Hinemoa Street from the Birkenhead Library are some of the oldest in the suburb. The building on the right was Samuel Roberts’ General Provider. Roberts originally built his store near the Birkenhead Wharf at the bottom of Hinemoa Street in 1904, but growing demand in the Highbury area prompted him to open a second store in 1913 at this location. A third store later opened midway along Hinemoa.

Roberts’ store was the first general mercantile and grocery store in the area and was a substantial two-story building that dominated the surrounding area at the time it was built. Around 1920, the business rebranded itself as the Highbury Cash Store to emphasise the growing commercial district. Although the heart of Highbury moved slightly to the north and along Mokoia Road and Birkenhead Avenue, the Highbury Cash Store remained an important business for many decades. Today it is home to the Mulan Malaysian Restaurant.

Next door was the Hawkins grocery store. Henry James Hawkins was a native of Bath, England, and first bought land in the Highbury area in the early 1850s. He worked as a printer for The New Zealander but soon began experimenting with growing fruits on his Birkenhead property. By 1860, he had proven the viability of growing fruit on the North Shore and had become one of Auckland’s top three fruit growers. He eventually grew a wide range of commercial fruits including apples and pears, peaches and nectarines, apricots, plums, and cherries. He also became a well-respected beekeeper and developed several pioneering techniques of trapping bee swarms and producing honey beer and mead.

Hawkins’ second son, Benjamin Tapscott Hawkins, continued the family business after his father’s death in 1902. He also became one of the borough’s first councillors and remained involved in local politics until his own death in 1932. He served as an agent for the New Zealand Insurance Company and was a director for several gold and coal mines across the country. It was Benjamin who opened the Hawkins grocery store in 1920. The single-story structure was built in an early art deco style and originally had wooden posts that supported the verandah.

Turn left along Hinemoa Street. Stop at the roundabout.