Birkenhead: Healthy opportunity

An historic home that has been used as a hospital offers plenty of scope for buyers, writes Catherine Smith.

The Gables, 32 Hinemoa St, Birkenhead.

It's a rare hospital bed that provides its patients with a view of trees and glimpses of gardens and birds. But until this autumn, The Gables in historic Birkenhead Point was a nursing clinic, serving patients from North Shore Hospital.

Built some time before the 1880s for the Campbell family, the two-storeyed villa became part of the then Auckland Hospital Board in the 1920s.

Over the years, the house has been used as a maternity home (the front bay-windowed room was apparently the birthing room), a children's facility for the Princess Mary Hospital, and later as a nursing hospital for North Shore. It was closed for a number of years, until the current owners, David and Mary Perry, bought it in 1981 and restored it to its hospital use.

"We lived upstairs with our two daughters in the family quarters," recalls Mary. "You could feel the gracious living of the old family, and the glimpses of the sea were lovely."

In its early days, the house was served by a horse and cart, slogging up a track from the ferry at the foot of the hill. The grandstand views are framed today by mature trees.

With Mary and David's nursing and health management backgrounds, they re-established the house as a hospital, bringing it up to strict health and fire codes, adding air conditioning, sluice and treatment rooms. They converted a former classroom wing for the children from Princess Mary Hospital into more wards and later added an entire wing of single bedrooms, with accompanying bathroom and sluice facilities. In addition, the Perrys converted parts of the old verandahs into an office reception room, another as a sunny conservatory. They added extensive decking and a gazebo so that patients could be wheeled outside to enjoy the garden air.

"At its peak, we were an 18-bed hospital, with 26 staff working around the clock," says David. "Local nurses loved working here; it was a real family atmosphere. We still get people asking if they could come back to work."

The hospital business closed in April this year, although the commercial hospital licence remains extant for 12 months.

The original property took up a large part of the point. In the 1920s, the Campbells carved off two corners of the land for houses for the two Campbell sons. In the 1990s the Perrys subdivided the western half of the land so they could shift another gracious old villa on for their family home. Mary has gradually terraced the site into extensive cottage gardens and this year has carved off more land from the hospital to allow her garden expansion.

The original villa has two main reception rooms, with the sun room opening on to the deck, and has kitchens and treatment rooms. Two large double bedrooms complete the downstairs. Upstairs are a series of original dormer windowed bedrooms, with a tiny kitchenette and bathroom added, probably in the 1950s.

The original verandahs and lovely ceilings have been enclosed to meet health codes, but the bones are still there for an enthusiast willing to convert the house back to her former glory.

With the appropriate resource consents, the property could be lovingly restored as a boutique hotel, medical facility, or the extensive grounds may even be subdivided.

Vital Statistics

SIZE: Land 1800sq m, house 640sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: Expressions of interest from $1.5 million to $2 million. Tender closes August 31.

INSPECT: By appointment.

CONTACT: Fran Weinstein, Barfoot & Thompson, Birkenhead, ph 480 9029 bus, 021 432 432 mob.

FEATURES: 1880s or earlier Residential 3C Heritage two-storeyed house with two reception rooms, conservatory, kitchen, office, seven double and 13 single bedrooms, four bathrooms (two en suite) plus separate toilets, shower, treatment and sluice rooms. Until recently operated as a licensed hospital. Lawned back garden, deck and gazebo, paved off-street parking.