Some of NZ’s most famous writers once stayed here. Now it stands empty, gathering dust

First, it accommodated horses, then Janet Frame. The horses were stabled there during the later years of Queen Victoria’s reign; Janet Frame came in 1987.

Where is this place of unique provenance? It stands at the top of Albert Park in central Auckland, a two-storey 1883 building whose
brick walls are smothered in Virginia creeper. The frontage of the tall building, which poet Kevin Ireland nicknamed “Le Petit Chateau”, looks east towards Princes St, whose row of elegant colonial houses were once the residences of Auckland’s fin de siècle merchant princes. In those pre-automobile days, the horses provided transport for the princes and their putative princesses. ence The Stables, set back a discreet distance from the street.

After the advent of motor cars in the 20th century, The Stables were rendered obsolete and fell into desuetude. They remained in that condition until 1987, when the Auckland City Council-owned building was renovated and converted to a venue that included the first residential fellowship for New Zealand writers.

Renovated at cost by Fletcher Building, it was named The Sargeson Centre, to commemorate the pioneering New Zealand writer Frank Sargeson (1903-82). Upstairs, two flats were created: one as a writer’s residence, the other accommodation managed by the Auckland Art Gallery.

At ground level was the George Fraser Gallery, named after the Fletcher Holdings’ art buyer, who had been a friend of both Sargeson and Sir James Fletcher. Students at the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts were able to display their work in the gallery.

Upstairs, appliances and furniture were installed in the larger studio space, including a double bed and that most indispensable item for writers: a set of bookshelves. An external wooden staircase gave access to the upper floor.

The writer’s fellowship, set up in 1986, was administered by the Sargeson Trust established by Sargeson’s friend and literary executor Christine Cole Catley in 1983. The fellowship was funded at first by the trust, then by two city law firms, first Buddle Findlay, then Grimshaw and Co. As well as the accommodation, the fellowship provided a stipend.

As secretary of the Sargeson Trust, I became de facto custodian of the fellowship and assisted the trust to administer it.

Michael King, Pauline Fraser (widow of George) and Sir James Fletcher during The Stables’ 1986 transformation. Photo / Frank Sargeson Trust

A place to write

The flat formed the core of the Sargeson Centre. It was commodious, but at the same time, intimate. Sash windows at both ends gave views over Albert Park. As one fellow, Josie Shapiro, wrote: “The flat was quaint and dimly lit, a large skylight over the kitchen filling the room with a diffuse glow. … it was quiet and enclosed, although Albert Park and the city thrummed ceaselessly in the background.” The flat was in the central city but paradoxically was not of the central city.

From 1987 until 2025, 69 writers were awarded the fellowship, enabling them to live and work in the studio flat for up to four months each. Among the recipients, following Janet Frame and Kevin Ireland in 1987, were Alan Duff, Jack Lasenby, Catherine Chidgey, Marilyn Duckworth, Tina Shaw, Toa Fraser, Elspeth Sandys, James George, Emily Perkins, Diana Wichtel and Charlotte Grimshaw. I arranged for photographs of each fellow to be displayed on top of the bookshelves. Some writers found these portraits inspiring, others thought their studied glares intimidating.

Authorly foibles

Administrating the fellowship was not always straightforward. Although writers were grateful for the accommodation, because it was residential and in the central city, concomitant difficulties arose at times. Parking of the fellow’s vehicle was invariably problematic. Phone connections in the pre-mobile era were challenging. Outstanding power bills were an irritant. Some of the city’s unhoused nomads made the space under the external stairwell their temporary home.

There were other difficulties. Catherine Chidgey (a 1998 fellow) locked her keys inside the flat, necessitating re-entry though the skylight. Kapka Kassabova (1999) complained the noise from the breadmaker was keeping her awake at night (it was her breadmaker). Craig Marriner (2004) installed his own gym, complete with massive paraphernalia. Steve Braunias (2009) hosted several soirees (aka parties) in the flat. Charlotte Grimshaw (2000) brought her baby, Leo, to the centre; Karyn Hay (2004) brought her teenage boys. Toa Fraser (2003) honeymooned there. Aware that it was once a stables, Kelly Ana Morey (2023) wanted to bring her horse along.

Janet Frame and Sargeson Trust founder Christine Cole Catley outside the Sargeson Centre in 1987 and, right, Frank Sargeson, pictured in 1964, brought an authentic New Zealand voice to our literature. Photos / Johne Reece Cole/ atl

Several of the fellows left gifts in gratitude for their tenure. Greg O’Brien (1988) donated one of his paintings; Janet Frame (1987) left a portrait of herself outside the centre with Christine Cole Catley. An anonymous fellow donated a wickedly sharp spear. All donated their books to the centre, so a library accumulated.

By 2010, so many esteemed writers had occupied the double bed in the flat and donated their DNA to it that I was moved to write an article suggesting a fundraising campaign be mounted in order to ship the bed to Venice as New Zealand’s contribution to that year’s Biennale. It was, after all, a living artefact. A writer could lie in the bed, I suggested, while it was being exhibited. My article was satirical, but after it was published in The New Zealand Herald, several people offered to donate money towards the project.

With few exceptions the chosen writers worked hard and did their best to deliver the goods while on the fellowship. Following their tenure, however, a small minority simply vanished. They and their writings were never heard of again.

Unfit for purpose

In 2024, the Sargeson Fellowship was shared between novelist Josie Shapiro and poet Zoë Meager. The penultimate Sargeson Fellow, Josie experienced ceiling leakage problems. Then her successor, Zoë, was abruptly evicted, mid-tenure, on Auckland Council orders, the council declaring the former stables were now an earthquake and fire risk. After 150 years of intact existence, the building had become designated as prone to earthquakes. The council concluded the studio flat could no longer be tenanted, by writers or anyone else. To render the building safe would require substantial amounts of money, and it was far beyond the resources of the Sargeson Trust to pay for the remedial work.

The flat was emptied of its books, photos and furniture by trustees Jenny and Martin Cole, and they were transferred to the humble cottage/literary museum at 14 Esmonde Road, Takapuna, where Frank Sargeson lived and wrote for 50 years. As for the Sargeson Centre in Princes St, it is now inhabited only by the ghosts of fellows past.

However, the council does have plans and a budget for remediation of the building under its “fix and finish” fund. But just what the upstairs space will be used for once the work is done remains to be decided.

In the meantime, the Sargeson Fellowship continues. It is now non-residential and has been renamed the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowship. A stipend is generously funded by editor and academic Janet Wilson, widow of Kevin Ireland and daughter of the late writer Phillip Wilson, a longtime friend of Sargeson’s. In this way, Sargeson’s legacy of assistance to other writers lives on. The current holders of the new, non-residential fellowship are novelists Laurence Fearnley and Bridget van der Zijpp.

The loss of the Sargeson Centre is grievous. As Josie Shapiro wrote, “There aren’t enough of these places left in the world, places that ask you to open your mind and see what you find. A place that gives you permission to consider nothing else but the words, the work, your manuscript. Such a shame, isn’t it, to lose one of those precious places.”

So true. But if you stand at the foot of the brick walls of the one-time stables and stare upwards, you can hear again the voice of Janet Frame, remarking to her friend Frank Sargeson: “Remember the narrow channel you made, all alone, into that part of the land where everyone said nothing would grow …. look at all the creeks and canals that followed. What an orchard.”

Auckland writer Graeme Lay is the author of more than 40 books. His first novel, The Mentor (1978), was inspired by Frank Sargeson.

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