Beale Cottage

Beale Cottage is a single-story wooden residence at the corner of Beale and Grey Streets, displaying colonial architectural features from the 1870s. The small floor plan with four rooms is typical of early Hamilton settlement and originally housed both family and professional spaces.

The cottage was built in 1872 and served Dr. Bernard Beale as both home and workplace during Hamilton's early settlement period. It represents a time when doctors operated their practices directly within their family homes.

The cottage shows how European doctors lived and worked during colonial times by combining home and medical practice under one roof. The arrangement of rooms reflects the boundaries between private and professional life as it existed then.

The cottage can be visited by arrangement through Hamilton City Council to see the interior and exterior features. A visit offers personal insight into life during early European settlement in New Zealand.

The original doctor's surgery room remains in its original state and shows how patients were treated in that era. Part of the floor plan still reveals where daily medical work took place.