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Uploaded on: September 12, 2026

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The Majestic Theatre on Queen Street in Auckland was Demolished September 1961.

Built in 1925, the grand picture palace was torn down as the cinema business model shifted and television ownership began to rise, prompting developers like Kerridge Odeon to replace it with the commercial 246 Building (which was envisioned as a modern shopping status symbol).

Standard mid-century urban renewal cleared the 1925 structure relatively quickly without the dramatic nighttime anti-demolition blockades that later characterized the tragic 1988 destruction of His Majesty’s Theatre in Auckland.

Looking back, modern heritage groups and the public view the 1961 destruction of the Majestic Theatre as a regrettable loss of New Zealand’s early architecture - At the time in 1961, the demolition was widely accepted as a sign of post-war progress and modernization, reflecting a general civic apathy toward historic preservation that dominated Auckland’s downtown development.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -