NZ Visual Diary - entry 280

Carlile House - Richmond Road | Grey Lynn

Heading toward Grey Lynn, having turned onto Richmond Road from Ponsonby Road, the house is a short distance on the left-hand side of the thoroughfare. The sight is arresting, gut-wrenching in the moment and then evocative as one’s imagination reconstructs what has been lost.

In the ignoble pantheon of historically significant but neglected residential architecture, Carlile House (aka the Costley Training Institute) has disquieting membership. Built in the waning years of the 19th Century but abandoned and left to weather in disrepair by the late 20th Century, this magnificent edifice remains steadfast, determined to sustain some semblance of past glory.

Nonetheless, the unsettled struggle between historical preservation and city budgets leaves the fate of Carlile House in disturbing abeyance.

Reporting from 2018 & 2021 in Stuff, a New Zealand online news outlet, chronicles the fact and lore of Carlile House.

Heritage New Zealand provides a comprehensive history of the building’s multiple identities over its 138 year legacy.