The Corner Store/Galbraith's

In this vicinity of Uptown, you'll find more hisoric buildings bustling today as estalishments to grab a great coffee, beer, cocktail and delicious local food.

Firstly, The Corner Store. Built around 1880 and located on the corner, as expected, it was initially an actual corner store; hence the old Sunlight soap advertisement still on the side of the building. It has also been a bookstore, a cafe and a restaurant. Next door is twenty three, a cafe now, but also was the location of the first Real Groovy Records. Feel free to pop into twenty three to pick up a free copy of the latest Uptown magazine!

Secondly, Galbraith's. Now a pub and restaurant, this hisoric building was originally the Grafton Public Library, built in 1912 in a Edwardian Baroque style, to a design by architect Edward Bartley. Edward was a strong advocate for public libraries, and 1878 he had helped to establish a library in Devonport; the first public library in the Auckland province. Now as an Alehouse, Galbraith's has been brewing world-beating beers from their on-site brewery since 1995.

Central to Uptown, these buildings once hosted a place for living and gathering; shopping at the local corner store and reading across the road at the public library. In today's society they still do exactly that; they are spaces for living and gathering. Uptown always was a neighbourhood - a central place of gathering - and it is now coming full circle.