Doors close on 129 years of Napier pharmacy history

Last ones standing - Unichem UFS Pharmacy Napier staff and empty shelves last week. From left Raewyn Waayer, Tariq Farooq, veteran pharmacist Barry Lennox and Raewyn Holden. Photo / Warren Buckland

A Napier pharmacy closed on Friday with a history dating back to the North Island's first United Friendly Societies Dispensary in 1892.

The pending closure of Unichem UFS Pharmacy Napier, in Emerson St in Napier's CBD and just two doors from Clive Square, was announced early last month – to take effect from the end of January, depending on the sale of the stock, according to its Facebook post.

By Friday, it had all gone.

Some of its history is recorded in the 2007 book Napier's Medicine Makers, by Des Harris and Don Millar.

Its opening almost 129 years ago stemmed from the first establishment of "friendly societies" in Britain in the early 1800s, to enable low-income families ready access to medical services and medicines.

As members of lodges emigrated and settled in New Zealand they were able to establish societies down under, and a meeting was held in Napier in June 1892 to discuss establishing a pharmacy for the benefit of members in the area.

Just four months later sufficient funds had been accrued through debentures issued to lodges and individuals, to establish a UFS Dispensary. It was officially open for business the following February in Emerson St "in the premises lately occupied by Grant and Co and directly opposite N.Williams and Son", according to the first advertisement in Napier's Daily Telegraph newspaper.

It later moved to a site in Hastings St, where the number of chemists grew rapidly in what was considered the main shopping street in Napier.

It moved to the current site as the business centre moved, and it was there on February 3, 1931, that the building was wrecked in the Hawke's Bay Earthquake.

It was reported to have been one of the three pharmacies from which fire swept to engulf much of the inner-city, but reopened in the Tin Town temporary business centre within a few weeks.

A tender was let later in the year for the rebuilding in Emerson St and it opened on April 1, 1932 – just 14 months after the earthquake and one of the fire replacement buildings to be completed.

There was considerable public concern in 1986 over the loss of a period building amid the rapid growth of the Art Deco reputation in Napier, but it re-emerged in a building designed with some recognition of the era, and became the Deco City Amcal Pharmacy.

The Hastings UFS Dispensary was no longer linked in any way with the Napier pharmacy and continues to operate from its site in Heretaunga St East. UFS dispensaries also continue in Blenheim and Invercargill.