Those who build

The origin of the Beachlands Memorial Hall.

Bruce Ringer

The Beachlands Memorial Hall in Wakelin Road is not, as its name might suggest, a war memorial hall. Perhaps uniquely, it is a memorial to the people who built it.

It is the second hall on the site. The first hall was built in 1922 or 1923. It served as a shop and a house between 1925 and 1948, after which it was reconverted to a hall and used for public meetings, dances, film shows and church services. On 27 February 1955 the hall burnt down. The Beachlands Ratepayers’ & Progressive Association raised money and organized voluntary labour to replace it. The new hall was ready by August 1956, and over the years became the centre for all kinds of community activities.

Beachlands Hall, 1950s. (Mrs Dawn Smith)

In June 1972 the Ratepayers’ Association offered the hall and the land on which it stood to Manukau City Council. At that time the building was known simply as the Beachlands Hall.

Later in the year a resident suggested a change of name: “The original hall was built in 1922 and burned down [in] February 1955. The permanent residents of whom there were about 450 set to work to rebuild their hall ... All the labour was done voluntarily and both men and women assisted in various ways to work on this project ... There are under a dozen of the people who toiled to build the hall living in Beachlands. The greater number of them have gone to eternal rest and to do honour to all of them I would like to suggest that the hall be known as the 'Beachlands Memorial Hall'".

Council agreed to this proposal, and thus from April 1973 onwards, the Beachlands Hall was thus known as the Beachlands Memorial Hall.

For more information: see Manukau’s Journey.

Publication record: first published in Connexions, no. 97, August 2008, p. 5. Revised and updated for publication on the Manukau Libraries website in September 2009.

Copyright © Manukau Libraries. This text may be freely used for the purposes of private study or research and for non-commercial publication provided that the author and Manukau Libraries are duly acknowledged.