Langham Hotel, Auckland

The Langham Hotel is a five-star hotel in Auckland, New Zealand. Formerly named the Sheraton Auckland Hotel & Towers, it occupies the historic site of Partington's Windmill, a local landmark until its demolition in 1950.

In May 1850, Charles Partington purchased land in Symonds Street for £200, and commenced the construction of “the new Windmill” at a cost of £2000. In August 1851 the first flour was advertised for sale. Partington, an immigrant from Oxfordshire in England, had arrived in 1847. He had previously been in partnership with John Bycroft and together they took over the Epsom Mill that stood in St Andrews Road (part of which has been renamed Windmill Road in memory of that structure which was demolished in the 1920s). The partnership lasted until December 1849.

The Symonds Street windmill was built in 1850 using bricks made on the site from clay dug nearby. In 1856 an important sideline was introduced - the baking of biscuits - using equipment specially imported from Reading, Berkshire in the United Kingdom, presumably from Huntley & Palmer's who already baked biscuits there. The business was renamed the Victoria Flour Mills and Steam Biscuit Factory.

During the New Zealand wars (1861 to 1866), four firearms were always kept in the mill which was located in a strategic position on the southern edge of the Town of Auckland. As it happened Auckland was never directly threatened by the Māori at any time during the conflict. During the wars, Charles Partington served with the British cavalry and the mill supplied the troops with food, chiefly biscuits, but also flour and crushed corn.

By 1873 the biscuit making machinery had been relocated to the Riverhead mill and at least some of the land around the Symonds Street mill had been sold off as building sites. Shops were erected along Symonds Street and houses on the other three boundary roads leaving the windmill in the centre of the block accessed by a lane called at various times Mill lane or Partington street.

Charles Partington died in 1877, apparently leaving his family affairs in disarray. His sons continued in the business and Joseph Partington took over the Symonds Street mill. In 1892 there was a Supreme Court Hearing, and a Mr Evans received title over part of the land, probably through mortgage default. In June 1895, Joseph Partington took out a 10-year lease from Evans. Two years later Evans sold his property to James Wilkinson who served Partington with notice to quit.

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