
Queen Anne

Son of a master baker, Ernest Alfred Adams already had extensive
baking and business experience when he met Hugh Bruce, a
Christchurch baker who was intending to sell his business
to retire. Instead they decided to go into partnership, and
formed Adams Bruce Limited.
By 1925 the successful company
had bakeries in Auckland,
Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, and decided to expand
into chocolate and ice cream manufacture. Two Canadian confectioners
were brought in to help set up the Queen Anne
Chocolate ‘Studio’ in College Street, Wellington.
A three-story factory was built for both chocolate and ice
cream production.
Adams Bruce expanded its bakery empire and chain of retail
shops throught the 1920s, until its brand of chocolates, ‘Queen
Anne’,
had become a household name.
By 1929, Queen Anne Ice Cream was beginning to make its name as a high quality product
as well, "in three distinctive flavours",
Maple, Vanilla and Chocolate, served in a dish (ice cream
6d,
sundae 9d and banana split for 1/-), in three sizes of take-home
container (6d,1/-, and
2/-) and in "the
big
Queen
Anne Cake
Cone":

Queen
Anne Ice Cream advertisement,
Evening Post, February 1929.
The Depression led to the formation of a new company, Ernest
Adams Ltd., to take over the South Island part of the business,
with Adams Bruce continuing to cover the North Island.

Queen Anne Ice Cream advertisement, Auckland Star, 23
December 1929

Queen
Anne Ice Cream advertisement, Auckland Star, 18 November
1933
With
their distinctive black-and-white
tiled interiors and ornate lead-lighted frontages, featuring
the now-famous "Queen Anne" symbol, the iconic Adams Bruce
and Queen Anne shops became synonomous with luxury
treats, and hold fond memories
for anyone who grew up in those times.

Original
Queen Anne shopfront, Dunedin.
-
Chris Gregory.
In 1932, in Auckland, there were
two Adams Bruce Queen Anne shops selling ice cream in Queen
St, and two in Karangahape Road. You could
buy ice cream cones in three sizes; 1/2d (or two for a penny!),
1 1/2d, and 3d. Sundaes were 9d each, with three new flavours
announced: Butterscotch, Caramel (vanilla
ice cream
with
caramel
sauce and a pink wafer on top), and Walnuts in Maple.
Factory manager Vic Kent worked for the company for 30 years,
including the war years, when he remembered people queuing
for Queen Anne chocolates,
and
the time that the
company
was fined for putting too much cream in its ice cream during
rationing.
In 1945, the Adams Bruce business was sold to two of the
company's managers, Hollis Reed
and John Rhodes, who set about expanding the operation even
further.

Queen
Anne cardboard 1 pint pack, ca 1960?
- Mike
Davidson.
Ice cream was also sold under the Adams Bruce brand.

Adams
Bruce ice cream cup,
1950s-60s.
- Mintie
Cottle.
Continued
growth in the 1960’s
meant that cake, ice cream and confectionery shops were opened
in almost
every
centre in
the North Island. The shops competed with the milk bars,
complete with scoop ice cream, milkshakes and ice cream sundaes,
plus
of course, cakes, biscuits, chocolates and other goodies.
However the spread of the supermarkets began to eat into
their viability.

Queen
Anne Half-Gallon
can lid, 1960s.
- bjubes.
In 1976, after 50 years of chocolate and ice cream making,
and facing extensive costs to upgrade the factory,
the Queen Anne College
Street
business closed down and the famous Queen Anne brand disappeared.
Ernest Adams died in
Christchurch on 29 August 1976.
After the company left the ice cream business, the Queen
Anne Ice Cream brand was purchased by Westland Snowflake
Ice Cream Co,
Greymouth. Queen Anne brand ice cream
was manufactured for some years, through into the late 1990s,
but sadly it is no longer available.

Header
from Queen Anne Ice Cream flavour list, ca., 1995?.
-
Owen Norton collection.
In 1997, the Queen Anne Chocolate brand was resurrected
by Sarah
Adams,
granddaughter of Ernest Adams, and in 2011 a new Queen Anne
factory was opened at 19 Cable St, Sockburn, Christchurch.

You can read more about the history of Queen Anne, recollections
of its customers over the years, and the current range of
Queen Anne products on their website:
www.queenanne.co.nz
References and related sites:
Te Ara Dictionary of New Zealand Biography:
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5a4/adams-ernest-alfred
NZ Ice Cream Manufacturers Assn. archives.
Papers Past (National Library of New Zealand digitised newspapers database):
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/
Queen Anne
www.queenanne.co.nz
Back to
Ice Cream Brands from the Past. |