Site of the Takapuna Gasometer (Corner Northcroft and Auburn Streets)

Takapuna needed coal gas to power its lamps and provide heating to homes and businesses. In 1907, that gas was supplied by a compressed gas system connected to the Devonport Gas Works. By the 1930s, however, the demand had reached such a level that Takapuna needed its own gasometer. A gasometer is simply a large storage tank that can safely hold a large reserve of coal gas. To support the tank and confine any unfortunate explosion, a reinforced steel lattice girder frame was installed around the tank. The Takapuna gasometer operated until the 1970s, when it was decommissioned and natural gas was made publicly accessible from Auckland.

Because the gasometer had occupied the site for so many years, the ground underneath the tank had become contaminated. As a result, the land was abandoned for two decades, until 1997 when the gasometer’s frame was finally removed. The property was allowed to become an open-air carpark, but no other development was allowed until the late 2010s. In December 2020, the Toka Puia carpark opened on the site. It was built with a distinctive metallic gold lattice pattern in recognition of the earlier gasometer structure. The name Toka Puia was gifted by mana whenua and is a modernisation of the name Takapuna, which originally referred to a spring on North Head in Devonport. Thus, Toka Puia means ‘the volcanic rock (toka) that the spring flowed from (puia).’

Turn right up Auburn Street and stop at Como Street.