Manners Street, Wellington - 1840s

Brees, Samuel Charles] 1810-1865 :Catholic chapel, Wellington [Between 1842 and 1845] [Engraved by H Melville from an original by S C Brees. 1847. Alexander Turnbull Library.

The intersection of Manners, Willis, and Boulcott streets in Wellington has been an important, busy place for generations and one that Wellingtonians have a certain fondness for.

This is the first of a series of posts on that intersection from the early days of colonial settlement down to the present which after 1914 became known as "Perrett’s Corner" for the two chemists, Edwin and Claude Perrett, who ran a pharmacy on the south-east corner. The business closed in 1964.

But the place had a history well before 1914. The 1847 view pictured above shows Samuel Charles Brees' depiction of the crossroads in the new European settlement that were to form into the Manners-Willis-Boulcott intersection. A religious procession heads down Willis street going north from the chapel, the later site of St Mary of the Angels on Boulcott Street. The road in front of it (Boulcott) heads up to the Terrace.

The building at left with barrels in front of it is the approximate site of what was to become Perrett's Corner.