Farewell to a Wellington icon

Most Wellingtonians have a memory of the great department store Kirkcaldie and Stains, at the centre of Lambton Quay.
For me it was the magical Christmas windows.
For others it might have been the legendary sales (which were held twice a year since 1887), having the doorman usher you inside or the ritual of tea in the second floor tea shop.
Kirkcaldies closed in 2016 and David Jones took over with a similar type of shop. From tomorrow even that is gone, and with it, a type of store that barely exists anymore.
John Kirkcaldie and Robert Stains started the store in 1863. Both men knew parts of the sales industry, Kirkcaldie as a draper and Stains who was a retailer.
Kirkcaldie was born in 1838 in Fifeshire, Scotland and apprenticed to a draper before moving first to Dublin then London.
In 1861 he emigrated to Australia where he met Englishman Robert Stains in Sydney.
They recognised a need for such a store in the fledgling city of Wellington. With £700 of capital (a king's ransom in those days) they opened the first store - although it was in a different spot on Lambton Quay, where the Old Bank Arcade is now. Indeed, part of the shop was built from the timbers of the wrecked ship known as Plimmer’s Ark.
The shop moved to the corner of Lambton Quay and Brandon Street in 1868 and reigned over the middle of Wellington’s retail district.
It was known for its high quality products and exceptional service.
The three storey shop we know today was built in 1909 - 1910 on the site that had held the original store, which even now shows the Italianate style it was known for.
Whole generations of families have shopped for years at Kirks as the shop was affectionately known.
Its history includes numerous fires (although nothing that destroyed the store), an attempted murder in the tea rooms - we have previously told that story - a Bechstein grand piano on the stairwell - playing for the customers.
It has survived wars, depressions and earthquakes.
Kirkcaldie married Stains’ cousin Mary Anne Hall and had eight children. Stains himself returned to England where he died in 1912.
Kirkcaldie left his chairmanship of the shop in 1918 then as a director in 1919.
In September 1920 he and Mary celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in the shop’s famous tearooms.
Kirkcaldie died on October 3, 1925, and is buried in Karori Cemetery.
Do you have a favourite memory of the beautiful shop?
Photo from Te Papa's collection.