I see the Route 321 “Hospitals” bus getting along Gillies Avenue in Epsom. And I can’t help thinking it’s a pretender… it’s no match for the number of hospitals served by its predecessor, Route 18, the Cornwall Hospital service. I was a frequent passenger.
Bedford No 14, a regular on Route 18 – MOTAT
In earlier times the 18 bus served no fewer than 11, yes 11, hospitals. Surely a record along its route from the Civic Square in the city to its terminus at Cornwall Hospital, all of it just 8 kms!
These days bus route 321, which took over from 18, travels much further – all the way to South Auckland and Middlemore Hospital – but can’t hold a candle to the (I’m saying) record number, 11, hospitals once served. Here they are in the order encountered on the trip from the city…
1 St Helen’s Hospital, Pitt Street, opposite Central Fire Station. Public maternity facility 1906 – 1968. Demolished, now St John Ambulance Station and offices/apartments.
2 Huia Private Hospital, corner Park and Grafton Roads, c 1890s- 1960s. Demolished, now Auckland University’s Huia resident apartments. Surgical and maternity.
Auckland Public Hospital just prior to demolition –
Dubois Collection, Auckland Libraries
3 Auckland Public Hospital, Park Road, Grafton. The city’s main hospital for medical, surgical and emergency patients for most of the time 18 passed by, since demolished and replaced, 2003, as Auckland City Hospital, with maternity, along with adjacent Children’s Starship Hospital
4 Auckland Children’s Hospital, Park Road near Domain duck pond. Down a long driveway, separate to Auckland Hospital, superseded by Starship in 1991.
5 Mater Misericordiae Hospital, 98 Mountain Road, Epsom, general hospital founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1900, renamed Mercy Hospital in 1998 and Allevia in 2025.
6 Brightside Private Hospital, Brightside Road, Epsom, medical and surgical hospital, taken over by Southern Cross Healthcare who in 2000 refurbished/renewed facilities.
7 Lavington Private Hospital, Gillies Avenue, Epsom, medical and general services, taken over by Southern Cross Healthcare in 1979, its first hospital: demolished – new building.
8 St Davids Hospital, 245 Gillies Avenue, Epsom. Medical and elderly care. Demolished, land vacant for some time, then apartments in 2024.
9 Green Lane Hospital, Green Lane West. Established in 1890 as a home for the aged and poor, re-formed to a hospital, Green Lane, in 1942. Major medical, surgical and emergency hospital until 2003 when it changed to a Clinical Centre for outpatients, Auckland City Hospital taking emergency and other patients.
Combined site, 1964, of Green Lane Hospital (left of picture) & National Women’s – the building top right – Whites Aviation, Auckland Libraries
10 National Women’s Hospital, Claude Road, Epsom (access from number 18 bus through the grounds of Green Lane Hospital). Opened in 1964, designed to be the hub of maternity services in the region. Closed in 2004 when Auckland City Hospital shared maternity services with other Auckland hospitals, now part of Green Lane Clinical Centre.
11 Cornwall Hospital, Green Lane West. Built in wartime in the grounds of Cornwall Park as the US Armed Forces’ 39th General Hospital to treat casualties from the Pacific Theatre. Post-war became National Women’s Hospital 1945 -1964 and Cornwall Hospital with geriatric care. All services closed by 1975, buildings removed/demolished and the area reverted to parkland.
Cornwall Hospital sprawls across parkland – a wartime expediency built by the US Army – Whites Aviation, Auckland Libraries
Number 18 buses would drive through the hospital grounds (the main corridor was more than a mile – 1.6km – long). The giant water tank/fish-pond provided a natural turnaround for the buses to begin their return trip to the city.
Just for the record the Number 18 was administered by the Auckland Transport Board, latterly the Auckland Regional Authority and now 321 is overseen by AT (Auckland Transport).
Buses departed roughly half-hourly from the Civic and Cornwall Hospital during daylight hours, there was no night service. Here’s the route with points of interest along the way: from the Civic Square (latterly outside the theatre), then via Wellesley Street West, Albert Street, Vincent Street: latterly YMCA, St James Street (as was): Dominion Oil Refinery, 1933-1960s recyclers of motor oil, Pitt Street: Central Fire Station and St John Ambulance Station, Karangahape Road, Grafton Bridge, Park Road: Auckland Domain and access to Museum, Miss Aitkenhead’s Home Cookery, Mountain Road: old breweries, Auckland Grammar School, Mappin’s residence (now Government House), Owens Road, Brightside Road, Gillies Avenue, King George Avenue, The Drive: Epsom Normal Primary School, Alba Road (as was), Green Lane West: Alexandra Park Raceway and the Showgrounds to the terminus at Cornwall Hospital: access to adjacent Cornwall Park.
In early days, during Spring months, the Number 18 bus would make an unexpected, unscheduled, stop in Alba Road. By arrangement, drivers would keep a watch out for Mrs Ella Piper, an avid gardener, who would be waiting to be picked up outside her home. She would be carrying baskets of spring and summer bloom – I recall a sea of sweet pea flowers – her contribution to brighten the wards at Cornwall Hospital.
Smaller buses, like the Bedford OWB, were allocated to Route 18 – MOTAT, Les Downey
The number 18 buses were smaller, lighter, Bedfords to comply, we were always told, with weight restrictions on Grafton Bridge, although this doesn’t seem to matter so much these days with heavy double-deckers using the bridge!
Old Bedfords were replaced with new ones like this in the 1960s, plus the 301 series – MOTAT, Bruce Gamble
Great! It’s good to see the present-day 321 route is still labelled “Hospitals”, even though it passes far fewer medical facilities than when Route 18 Bedfords carried the loads! Passengers included people on their way to and from the city, visitors to the various hospitals, out-patients, commuters and school kids. Among the last group were children who lived in quarters at the Central Fire Station and travelled weekdays to and from Epsom Normal Primary School, their parents preferring them to attend there. Number 18 catered for them all.
Oh, and now I’m going to be really cheeky – and add one more hospital to the list, a twelfth! Number 18’s bus stop in Karangahape Road was not that far from the famous Dolls’ Hospital (opened in 1944)
Accident and Emergency for Dolls – Wrightway Studio
There, procedures were carried out to replace missing limbs, to ensure eyelids closed when Dolly was put down for a nap and, in the more expensive models, to restore recorded cries for “mamma”.
Number 18 bus, unparalleled, serviced all manner of hospitals!
RCC September 2025
Sources
Papers Past, National Library on New Zealand – https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/
Wrightway Studio, incorporating the Doll’s Hospital, Glen Innes website
Southern Cross Healthcare – https://healthcare.southerncross.co.nz/
Company Hub New Zealand website
Court of Arbitration New Zealand – https://www.austlii.edu.au
