![\"Carlile](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/4JK0ESM_DJI_0579_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nContemplating the future of Grey Lynn’s abandoned Carlile House<\/p>\n
* This article has been updated to clarify Auckland Council was approached by the church regarding demolition, but this was prohibited.<\/p>\n
Leaders of a church that owns a historic abandoned building in central Auckland have been in talks with Auckland Council about the possibility of demolishing it.<\/p>\n
The once-grand, two storey Carlile House in Auckland’s Grey Lynn was built in 1886 and has had many uses over its long life – including as an Anglican children’s home, and an alternative school.<\/p>\n
But in recent decades it has fallen into ruin and the church that owns it do not have the money to restore it to its former glory.<\/p>\n
RNZ looks at the history and future of the building as part of our Abandoned Auckland series.<\/p>\n
Architect and Grey Lynn local Graeme Burgess looks over a barbed wire and corrugated iron fence at the historic Carlile House on Richmond road in Grey Lynn.<\/p>\n
“Right now, because of the fence running through here it actually feels so guarded, and it’s like something that nobody can actually appreciate.”<\/p>\n
The building was grand in size and stature, but Burgess said after years of neglect it was heart-breaking to see the state it had ended up in.<\/p>\n
“[It’s] difficult to watch something so grand and so wonderful slowly falling apart. But there are reasons why it’s in the state that it’s in at present. And those reasons are incredibly complex.”<\/p>\n
The United Church of Tonga, which owned the building, did not have the money to do it up.<\/p>\n
The church did not want to be interviewed for this story, but said it was working through its options for the building, and would put forward a plan in coming months.<\/p>\n
Auckland Council said it had been approached about the possibility of demolishing the building by the church, but as it was a Category 1 Historic Place, that was prohibited.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The building was a Category 1 Historic Place<\/p>\n
RNZ \/ Marika Khabazi<\/p>\n
Graeme Burgess hoped the church and council could find a way to make use of the place.<\/p>\n
“I would hope that’s not the discussions they’re having. I hope that the discussions they’re having would be about how the place can be retained to the greatest extent possible.”<\/p>\n
Local artist John Reynolds, who has lived opposite Carlile house for decades, was less optimistic – given the roof of the building had partially caved in.<\/p>\n
“At the current rate of decay, in 18 months it’ll be collapsing in on itself, if not before.”<\/p>\n
Reynolds believed the church had no interest in restoring the building, and the council had not done enough to help find a resolution.<\/p>\n