Site of the Foresters Hall (34 Anzac Street)

Takapuna gained a cinema in 1914 when the Forester’s Hall was built on the site of today’s Monterey Cinema. The building included a large central hall that could double as a movie theatre when it wasn’t being used by the Ancient Order of Foresters. The Foresters are a British-based friendly (mutual benefit) society similar to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows or the Knights of Columbus.

In 1932, the hall was rechristened the Gaiety when Phil Hayward, son of the well-known cinema proprietor Henry Hayward, took over. From 1968 to 1984, the cinema operated as the Tudor. The building was eventually demolished, and a new structure built in its place. A Berkeley Cinema opened on the site in August 1999. The multiplex changed hands in late 2019 and is now run by Monterey Cinemas.

Directly beside the cinema was St Peter’s Anglican Church. The first St Peter’s had been built on Katrine Street (Anzac Street) in 1883. The family of Sir Henry Brett, owner of the Auckland Star, donated land on Killarney Street for a new church and St Peter’s moved to that site in 1962. He also bequeathed his nearby home, Te Kiteroa, to the Anglican Diocese to become the orphanage known as The Brett Home.

Return to the Tramways plaque and cross the Anzac Carpark to the open lot at 38 Hurstmere Road.