Who Lived There? The stories behind historic New Zealand buildings by Nicola McCloy, with photography by Jane

As a child, many of our family outings and holidays revolved around my late father’s writing and publishing interests: New Zealand’s natural and human history. So it was with some delight that I opened the pages of Who Lived There? The book has a roughly north-south geographical structure, shining a light on more than 60 buildings from the Hokianga to Southland. Despite the book’s title, not all the buildings featured here are homes; many are commercial or industrial buildings including historic stores, stations, farm buildings and even the turnstile at Dunedin’s storied Carisbrook stadium. Who Lived There? features some more familiar and frequently visited places such as the Heritage New Zealand properties Pompallier at Russell in the Bay of Islands and Katherine Mansfield House in Wellington. There are schools and factories, a power station, several pubs and a brewery as well as lighthouses, blockhouses, farmhouses and an ice-cream garden. Through these seemingly prosaic buildings we can connect with a heritage which goes beyond the grand and lauded and tells the engrossing stories of ordinary Kiwis.