NZ Visual Diary - entry 304

late afternoon in another era - Queen Street

With a parade of high-end clothing & accessories shops - among them Dior, Chanel, Prada, Gucci, Coach, Bvlgari and Rolex - the first few blocks of Queen Street emulate, in much reduced grandeur, a Fifth Avenue (NYC) promenade.

And yet, within a few blocks, Queen Street sheds its contemporary, so ostentatious, vibe and offers instead intimations of an early 1900s past, with architectures civic or commercial in purpose, sublime or prosaic in style, stately or ignoble in current constitution.

Such is the content of today’s photographic pair: found on either side of Queen Street, perhaps four or five blocks from the street’s northern upscale gateway, the cluster of commercial buildings serves as a portal to unpretentious but distinctive architectures of an erstwhile age.