were termed in the 1930s by the City Council) Newton was seen as an area of biological and moral contamination. The routing of the Motorway system through the gully in the 1960s was seen as ideal; people would relocate to new areas to live healthier lives and Auckland's traffic problems would be alleviated. It wasn't foreseen that the motorways would have a devastating effect on retail trade; the Symonds Street Shopping area was badly hit. Previously the main centre for furniture shopping for the Auckland region (Tylers, Grace Brothers, The Maple, Smith & Brown, and Jon Jensen), the Symonds Street retail trade went into a serious decline and virtually disappeared as a retail hub; its Business Association collapsed in 1976 and has only recently (2012) been revived. After the motorway was cut through, Newton became even less of a desirable place to live with Symonds Street and Newton Road becoming almost motorway onramps. Much of the remaining housing stock in Newton was utilised for light industrial use and in many cases demolished and rebuilt as factories and warehouses. Since the 1990s there has been a reverse trend of rebuilding or converting industrial buildings for residential use including some large apartment block complexes. Upper Symonds Street is the location of three large churches: St Benedicts Roman Catholic Church (the 2nd most important catholic Church in Auckland), The Church of the Holy Sepulchre (2nd most important Anglican Church in Auckland) and St David's Presbyterian Church. In the 20th century the Upper Symonds Street Shops were the location of several large Furniture stores; Grace Brothers, The Maple, Smith & Brown, and Jon Jensen. Also located in the area were several entertainment venues; The Orange Coronation Hall, St Benedict's Hall, a Roller Skating Rink as well as the first purpose built cinema (the 1911 Lyric; demolished in the 1990s) and one of Auckland most famous restaurant's in the 1960s, the El Matador. In the mid 1990s most of the eastern portion of the street was demolished, partially to widen the roadway. This took with it several buildings of importance including the Lyric Theatre of 1911, Tylers, the El Matador, the Astor Hotel and the BNZ (an Art Deco structure with Maori motifs). Initially the Skycity Casino and Sky Tower were intended to occupy the resulting vacant block of land but for various reasons (including sightline issues involving the profile of Mt Eden) that development