'Topping off' the tramway power station chimney

Bricklayers conduct a 'topping off' ceremony in 1903 to mark the completion of the Wellington City Tramways Department 'power house' smokestack, photographed from Jervois Quay. This photograph came from the collection of Arthur Henry Nicholson, a master-bricklayer who came to Wellington from Australia specifically to work on this project before returning home. The power house, shown here under construction, was formerly located on the wedge-shaped plot of land bordered by Jervois Quay and Wakefield Street which eventually became the Michael Fowler Centre carpark. This coal-fired facility was built specifically to provide 550v DC electricity to the city-wide tram network which was then being installed by the WCC (its specifications are fully detailed in this publication). It supplemented the earlier Harris Street power station (later to become the site of the 'old' library, today the City Art Gallery) which primarily provided 110v power for street lighting and low-level domestic & commercial use. The two power stations continued to operate only about 200 metres apart providing power into two separate networks until they were both replaced by the significantly larger Evans Bay power station which opened in 1925. The opening of the Evans Bay power station also saw the city convert to using 230 volts AC which had become the standard domestic voltage used across much of the British Empire.