Pike Place

Reginald “Randy” Pike was born on 5 April 1876 in Norwich. He immigrated to Hamilton in the 1890s, where he managed a branch of Grey and Menzies, the beverage makers who went on to invent Lemon & Paeroa. Well known in the Waikato for his sporting prowess, Pike enlisted to fight in the Boer War in 1902 with the New Zealand Mounted Rifles. Wounded and sent to England, he was the only Kiwi patient at the Royal Victoria Hospital during a visit by Queen Alexandra, earning him a personal interview.

Reginald moved to New Plymouth in 1905 to start his own factory, in partnership with George Waters. Pike and Waters opened in December of that year, making cordials and aerated waters. Aerated (carbonated) water had been invented in England around 1740 and was thought to have many health benefits, not least of which was its non-alcoholic nature during the heyday of the temperance movement. The Taranaki Herald praised the cleanliness of the new plant and its hi-tech machinery, capable of aerating 16,000 bottles a day.

Reginald’s love of sports continued and he was elected captain of the Star Football Club in 1909. His business also went from strength to strength, with new factories in New Plymouth and Inglewood by 1910, the year he married Jessie Northey.

Reginald fought in the First World War too and was commended three times for valuable service. Back home, he was eventually elected vice president of the New Zealand Association of Carbonated Water and Cordial Manufacturers in 1931.

Jessie Pike died in New Plymouth in 1932 and was buried in Te Hēnui cemetery. The couple had no children so former employee Harry Wolfe bought the factory and Reginald moved to Auckland where he died on 27 December 1957 at the age of 81. Pike and Waters ceased manufacturing in 1965.

The name Pike Place was chosen for the street, part of a residential subdivision off Frankley Road overlooking Waimea Stream, by developers Pieter and Marianne Pike in 2015. Originally from South Africa, and no relation despite the surname, they wanted to honour Reginald’s legacy of bringing refreshing waters to his adopted hometown.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.