The history of 273 Tinakori Road

273 Tinakori Road was probably constructed as a shop for J. Myers and Co. Ltd., sometime in the 1880s. It was certainly in place by 1891. What is known is that the building and land was acquired in the 1890s by John Coates Hutchinson, who arrived from England in 1892. He called the building Manchester House and offered a variety of goods and services from the building, including ‘fancy goods and haberdashery, a small lending library and a men’s hairdressing saloon.

The building became best known for the post office Hutchinson ran; in 1899 he was appointed postmaster and his store became Tinakori Road Post Office.

Naomi Hutchinson passed away in 1931 and John closed the store, turned the building into apartments and in 1932 extended the building to incorporate two new flats between the existing wooden shop building and the outhouse at the back of the section.

Little is known of the building over the following years. An electrical business was run from the building for some decades. In 1971 the successful New Zealand fashion designer Valerie Svendsen established her first fashion boutique, Memsahib, in the building which was to become the first of seven that she opened during the 70s and 80s in New Zealand and Australia.

In the 1990s the rather tired building was refurbished and more recently the ground floor commercial space has been occupied by So You Hairdressing. Keith and Janine bought the building in 2021 and have undertaken a refurbishment programme to preserve the heritage of the building whilst providing modern amenities for our guests.