- The four-bedroom home at 52 King Street, New Plymouth, was converted from a 1920s Public Trust building.
- Current owners Kurt Aldam and Karyn Johnston are selling the property, listed at around $3m.
- Notable features include original urinals, a Glen Johns kitchen, and two self-contained studio apartments.
It’s probably the only $3 million house in New Zealand with urinals, but 52 King Street, in New Plymouth, isn’t your typical trophy home.
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The four-bedroom architectural wonder used to be the Public Trust building in the city and sits alongside the famous Len Lye and Centre Govett Brewster Art Gallery.
The 1920s building was converted into a residential pad more than a decade ago by Paul and Shelley Carrington, a family with connections right back to the father of New Plymouth, Frederic Alonzo Carrington.
The previous owners kept the old urinals. It’s a favourite topic of conversation at dinner parties. Photo / Supplied
The current owners gave the property a stylish makeover that was in keeping with their minimalist tastes. Photo / Supplied
The Carringtons made the bold move to keep the Public Trust’s original toilets, and it’s a decision the current owners, Kurt Aldam and Karyn Johnston, have benefited from. The urinals are a favourite topic of conversation at their dinner parties.
Aldam and Johnston, who bought the building in 2018, are selling up and have hired Robert Angus, of Robert Angus Real Estate, to handle their listing. He has a long history with the building. When he left school in the 1970s, he joined the Public Trust as a cadet and remained there for several years.
After his OE in New York and London, he returned to New Plymouth and bought the building, becoming his former employer’s landlord. He has fond memories of his time there. “There was no IT in those days, and we had banks of typists down the back of the building, all smoking Peter Stuyvesant as they typed away,” he told OneRoof.
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“I bought it in 1996 for $315,000 because I liked the building and knew it well. I had the Public Trust as my tenants until I sold it in 2002. Then it had a couple of subsequent owners until the Carrington family bought it in 2007, and did some major works there, creating a home art gallery for their art collection.”
The 463sqm home has four bedrooms, five bathrooms, and three internal car parks. It also boasts two self-contained studio apartments, which could be turned into short-term rentals.
Some of the more notable features include a Glen Johns designer kitchen, a police-certified gun safe, a bespoke tiled spa pool, a built-in wine cooler fridge, a Warmington open fireplace, an outdoor speaker system, and a sauna.
The RV is $1.39m, but Angus said this didn’t reflect the market value, telling OneRoof that the property had a guide price of around $3m.
The Glen Johns designer kitchen is a standout feature. Photo / Supplied
The property still bears the hallmarks of its commercial past. Photo / Supplied
Although the building was converted into residential space by the Carringtons, Aldam and Johnston told OneRoof they had made significant changes to the property. The Carringtons’ shabby chic style wasn’t to their taste, so they reconfigured parts of the home and made the decor more minimalist.
“We removed a bedroom and an ensuite and made that the kitchen area,” Aldam said. “We reconfigured the lounge, kitchen, laundry, and bathroom area, where there are the urinals. We took out the concrete walls, put in structural seismic frames, and removed the roof above the lounge to create a northeastern deck overlooking the city. We also put in a bespoke in-ground deep spa pool and installed radiated heating to make it comfortable.”
The home has all manner of noteworthy features. The media room is the old main safe, with the thick walls making it a quiet sanctuary. One of the ensuites is in another former safe, complete with a safe door and a grilled gate.
The rooftop deck offers views over the city. Photo / Supplied
But it’s the urinals that really impress visitors, said Aldam. The couple never considered removing them, and in fact went shopping in the UK recently to see if they could buy more for their new home. “They’re a museum piece,” said Aldam. “They’re 120 years old and beautiful. Everyone loves them. They are a talking point.
“Seriously, any visitor that comes, they’re just blown away. Then it’s like, to the wife, ‘You’d better come and have a look at this’.”
The couple, who recently sold their offshore oil and gas services business, would have lived happily ever after in their converted Public Trust office if they hadn’t been smitten with a nearby former pub.
“We bought New Plymouth’s first hotel [Chatsworth House], a number of years back. We wanted to convert it into a house, but it had commercial tenants, and we couldn’t get rid of them, so we sold it to a friend of mine, and we ended up purchasing the Public Trust Building,” Aldam said.
“The tenants moved out finally two years ago, and my friend said, ‘Do you want to buy it back?’ And my wife said, ‘Yes’. At that point, we had this dilemma, because we really love King Street. We had to make a choice and she won.”
Aldam added of their project: “It’s giving us some things we don’t get at the Public Trust building. I’m a bit of a car buff, so I end up with a seven-car garage and a swimming pool. My wife gets a garden. That’s our motivation.”
Angus said the buyers of 52 King Street were likely to be “well-resourced” early baby boomers looking for space and ambience. “Probably artistic,” he added.
- 52 King Street, New Plymouth Central, New Plymouth, is for sale by negotiation
