Editorial: Revival of Auckland’s heritage arcades an opportunity to enhance city

Editorial

NZ Herald

14 Mar, 2026 04:00 PM3 mins to read

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St Kevin’s Arcade on Karangahape Rd, Auckland, is a place buzzing with character and promise. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

“Back from the brink” stories are rare delights, hinting at something worth saving, restoring and valuing.

Take the shopping arcade, a love letter to just about any city’s younger self. A place for wandering, lingering. Very likely, a place of design opulence.

Long neglected and relegated to forgotten dusty
corners of the past, the arcade is making a comeback and for Auckland, a city deservedly shamed for the pulverising of its heritage, this is a heartening development.

The arcade’s adversaries, online shopping and the mega mall, have a compelling foothold. Would we go back? Unlikely. Would we want to? Unlikely. The mall is rarely a culturally singular or pleasing experience, but it does offer the convenience of a wide range of franchises, known brands, cafes, massage chairs and nail bars, all under one roof, with parking. Rather like matryoshka dolls, big malls often feature smaller malls within – such as department stores. There’s supermarket shopping. There are movie theatres and kiosks to get keys cut. Not all malls are created equally, and some are so ambitiously imagined and executed that they don’t look like malls.

But the arcade, a once-endangered sub-species of the retail world, offers something else. Community. Curated, eclectic brands. A sense of intimacy and the likelihood that you will connect to someone directly involved with a business. There’s a sense of intrigue. Beautiful design and, in some cases, natural light.