Ponsonby, New Zealand
Encyclopedia
Ponsonby is an inner-city suburb of Auckland City
located 2 km west of the Auckland CBD
, in the North Island
of New Zealand. The suburb is oriented along a ridge
running north-south, which is followed by the main street of the suburb, Ponsonby Road.
A predominantly upper-middle class residential suburb, Ponsonby today is also known in Auckland for its dining and shopping establishments – many restaurants, cafes, art galleries
, up-market shops and nightclub
s are located along Ponsonby Road. Previously containing many rundown buildings, and having a somewhat 'colourful' reputation (due to its association with Auckland's arts and gay/lesbian scenes), the suburb has undergone extensive gentrification
over the last two decades. Its postcode is 1011.
The Māori name for the ridge is Te Rimu Tahi ('The Lone Rimu
Tree', referring to an old prominent tree formerly standing at what is now the intersection of Ponsonby Road and Karangahape Road
).
Ponsonby Peacock was living in what was by then already called Ponsonby Road (later renamed Jervois road when Vandeleur Road was renamed Ponsonby Road in the 1880s). This fact alone would make it somewhat unlikely that he would have been the namesake for the new suburb.
The fact that part of what is now Ponsonby Road was called Vandeleur Road provides some basis for a derivation from either of the two latter men, who both fought at Waterloo
. Major-General Sir John Vandeleur was a Divisional Commander at Waterloo and Colonel Frederick Ponsonby was a regimental commander under him. Neither Frederick Ponsonby or Vandeleur came to New Zealand but they are considered the most likely people the streets and the suburb were named after.
in 1882.
In the 1950s and 60s a combination of people moving to new outer suburbs, Auckland City Council policy of "slum" clearances and the construction of the motorway through Freemans Bay
, led to plummeting rents and a drastic downturn in the economic fortunes of the area directly west of the CBD. In the 1970s, artists, bohemians, gays and lesbians, and Polynesian migrant workers and their families moved into the area, attracted by the low rents. The presence of so many 'creative types' created a distinct culture in the area, with which the area is still identified in the popular imagination of Auckland.
However, beginning in the 1980s and reflective of urbanisation patterns in other Western cities, processes of gentrification
and ethnic transition took place in the area (with Pakeha
replacing Polynesians
) that dramatically altered the suburb by the late-1990s, as described in the Ian Middleton
novel Mr Ponsonby
. Into the 2000s, Ponsonby is widely perceived of as a spatial centre of Auckland's so-called creative class
of professionals working in the better-paid professions, as well as the culture industry
. It is also seen as a place of consumption of up-market consumer goods (particularly clothing) and dining and drinking experiences for the city's upper-middle classes.
After a number of traffic accidents (including one death) during the 2000s along Ponsonby Road, which is both an important traffic arterial and a favourite nightspot, the main road was changed into a 40 km/h zone in 2009.
Notable buildings in the suburb include:
According to the 2001 census, Ponsonby has a population of 5,697. Statistical information gathered by Auckland City
shows that generally speaking the Ponsonby area is one of:
While official statistics are not collected, Ponsonby is also popularly imagined as having a large gay population relative to other Auckland suburbs. A survey by the NZ AIDS Foundation has however found that the stereotype seems to be true, and that the area and the directly adjacent suburbs have a (in comparison) very high percentage of gay people, possibly attracted by the fact that they feel more at ease in an environment where gay people are relatively commonplace.
(a co-ed school which was an important early school in Auckland originally located in the central city and called Seddon Memorial Technical College), Auckland Girls' Grammar School
, Saint Mary's College
(a Catholic school for girls and one of the oldest schools in New Zealand) and St Paul's College
(a Catholic school for boys with origins which go back more than 100 years).
Ponsonby Intermediate School (P.I.S) on Clarence St is the only intermediate school in the area.
Auckland City
Auckland City was the city and local authority covering the Auckland isthmus and most of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, in the North Island of New Zealand. On 1 November 2010 it was amalgamated into the wider Auckland Region under the authority of the new Auckland Council...
located 2 km west of the Auckland CBD
Auckland CBD
The Auckland CBD is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. Bounded by several major motorways and by the harbour coastline in the north, it is surrounded further out by mostly suburban areas...
, in the North Island
North Island
The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...
of New Zealand. The suburb is oriented along a ridge
Ridge
A ridge is a geological feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for some distance. Ridges are usually termed hills or mountains as well, depending on size. There are several main types of ridges:...
running north-south, which is followed by the main street of the suburb, Ponsonby Road.
A predominantly upper-middle class residential suburb, Ponsonby today is also known in Auckland for its dining and shopping establishments – many restaurants, cafes, art galleries
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
, up-market shops and nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
s are located along Ponsonby Road. Previously containing many rundown buildings, and having a somewhat 'colourful' reputation (due to its association with Auckland's arts and gay/lesbian scenes), the suburb has undergone extensive gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
over the last two decades. Its postcode is 1011.
The Māori name for the ridge is Te Rimu Tahi ('The Lone Rimu
Rimu
Rimu can mean the following:*Dacrydium cupressinum, also rimu, a tree endemic to New Zealand*Rimu, Southland, a locality in Southland, New Zealand*Rimu, West Coast, a locality in the West Coast region of New Zealand...
Tree', referring to an old prominent tree formerly standing at what is now the intersection of Ponsonby Road and Karangahape Road
Karangahape Road
Karangahape Road is one of the main streets in the central business district of Auckland, New Zealand. The massive expansion of motorways through the nearby inner city area - and subsequent flight of residents and retail into the suburbs - turned it from one of Auckland's premier shopping streets...
).
Etymology
The suburb was originally called Dedwood in 1845, after a farm in Shelly Beach Road. The name was changed to Ponsonby in 1873. There are various people who might have inspired the name:- Major-General Sir Henry PonsonbyHenry PonsonbySir Henry Frederick Ponsonby GCB was a British soldier and royal court official who served as Queen Victoria's Private Secretary.-Biography:He was the son of the British Army general, Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby....
(private secretary to Queen Victoria, 1870–1895) - The Honorable Ponsonby Peacock, a member of the New Zealand Legislative CouncilNew Zealand Legislative CouncilThe Legislative Council of New Zealand was the upper house of the New Zealand Parliament from 1853 until 1951. Unlike the lower house, the New Zealand House of Representatives, the Legislative Council was appointed.-Role:...
- Colonel Frederick Cavendish PonsonbyFrederick Cavendish PonsonbyMajor General The Honourable Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby, GCMG, KCB, KCH , styled The Honourable from 1806 to 1837, was a British military officer, the second son of the 3rd Earl of Bessborough and Henrietta Spencer....
- Major-General Sir William Ponsonby
Ponsonby Peacock was living in what was by then already called Ponsonby Road (later renamed Jervois road when Vandeleur Road was renamed Ponsonby Road in the 1880s). This fact alone would make it somewhat unlikely that he would have been the namesake for the new suburb.
The fact that part of what is now Ponsonby Road was called Vandeleur Road provides some basis for a derivation from either of the two latter men, who both fought at Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
. Major-General Sir John Vandeleur was a Divisional Commander at Waterloo and Colonel Frederick Ponsonby was a regimental commander under him. Neither Frederick Ponsonby or Vandeleur came to New Zealand but they are considered the most likely people the streets and the suburb were named after.
Iconic suburb
Originally a suburb for wealthy Aucklanders who favoured the harbour views available from the ridgeline, later residential subdivision off the main street began in the 1860s, with comparatively small lot sizes, and an influx of working people and their families. Many historic buildings, from shops to churches, were built in this time of the late 19th century, as was a tramline along Ponsonby Road. Ponsonby was amalgamated with Auckland CityAuckland City
Auckland City was the city and local authority covering the Auckland isthmus and most of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, in the North Island of New Zealand. On 1 November 2010 it was amalgamated into the wider Auckland Region under the authority of the new Auckland Council...
in 1882.
In the 1950s and 60s a combination of people moving to new outer suburbs, Auckland City Council policy of "slum" clearances and the construction of the motorway through Freemans Bay
Freemans Bay
Freemans Bay is the name of a former bay and now inner city suburb of Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand. The historical bay was filled in to a large extent, and lost its shoreline to reclamation works...
, led to plummeting rents and a drastic downturn in the economic fortunes of the area directly west of the CBD. In the 1970s, artists, bohemians, gays and lesbians, and Polynesian migrant workers and their families moved into the area, attracted by the low rents. The presence of so many 'creative types' created a distinct culture in the area, with which the area is still identified in the popular imagination of Auckland.
However, beginning in the 1980s and reflective of urbanisation patterns in other Western cities, processes of gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
and ethnic transition took place in the area (with Pakeha
Pakeha
Pākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...
replacing Polynesians
Polynesians
The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages within the Austronesian languages, and inhabit Polynesia. They number approximately 1,500,000 people...
) that dramatically altered the suburb by the late-1990s, as described in the Ian Middleton
Ian Middleton
Ian Middleton was a New Zealand novelist, who made a made a particular mark with his books set in post-Second World War Japan. Born in New Plymouth, he was the younger brother of noted New Zealand short story writer O. E...
novel Mr Ponsonby
Mr Ponsonby
Mr Ponsonby is the fourth novel from noted New Zealand author Ian Middleton, and is described as "his eulogy to a gentrifying Ponsonby". He had an intimate connection with Ponsonby , where the book is set, beginning in 1942 and returning to live there in later life...
. Into the 2000s, Ponsonby is widely perceived of as a spatial centre of Auckland's so-called creative class
Creative class
The Creative Class is a socioeconomic class that economist and social scientist Richard Florida, a professor and head of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, identifies as a key driving force for economic development of post-industrial...
of professionals working in the better-paid professions, as well as the culture industry
Culture industry
Culture industry is a term coined by critical theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer , who argued in the chapter of their book Dialectic of Enlightenment, 'The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception' ; that popular culture is akin to a factory producing standardized cultural goods...
. It is also seen as a place of consumption of up-market consumer goods (particularly clothing) and dining and drinking experiences for the city's upper-middle classes.
After a number of traffic accidents (including one death) during the 2000s along Ponsonby Road, which is both an important traffic arterial and a favourite nightspot, the main road was changed into a 40 km/h zone in 2009.
Notable buildings
- Former Ponsonby Post Office. 1–3 St Marys Bay Road. Architect: John CampbellJohn Campbell (architect)John Campbell was an architect, responsible for many government buildings in New Zealand.Born in Scotland, he travelled to New Zealand in 1882 after training in Glasgow under John Gordon. From 1883 to his retirement in 1922 he worked for the government, holding the title of Government Architect...
. Erected in 1911 this is a fine example of the Edwardian Baroque Style. Campbell was Government Architect.
- Former Ponsonby Fire Station. 15 St Marys Bay Road. Architects; Goldsboro & Wade.
- The Leys Institute. 20 St Marys Bay Road. Gift of William & Thompson Leys in 1905.
- ASB Bank: Jervois Road. This small neo-classical building is one of the many buildings commissioned by the Auckland Savings Bank from the architect Daniel B. Patterson. Similar buildings appear in Auckland suburban centres and in provincial towns throughout the Auckland Province.
- Former Britannia Theatre. 283 Ponsonby Road. Built in 1910 as a roller-skating rink and remodelled as a cinema in the 1920s.Converted into a shopping plaza in 1982 it is now Three lamps plaza.
- All Saints Church. Architect; Prof Richard ToyRichard ToyRichard Horton Beauclerc Toy, OBE was a former New Zealand architect renowned for his church architecture.Toy was born in Ignace, Ontario, Canada in 1911. His family moved to New Zealand in 1923...
. An award winning building from the 1950s which replaced an earlier wooden Victorian church.
- St Johns Church. 229 Ponsonby Road. Architect; Edward Bartley. Built in the 1880s this is a fine example of a wooden church in the Gothic style this building includes carved detailing by Anton Teutonberg.
- Terrace Houses, 203–209 Ponsonby Road. An interesting development dating from around 1900 these brick built houses with cement stucco finish are a half-way point between the London Town houses and the contemporary wooden villas of New Zealand.
- Former Newton Borough Council Chambers & Fire Station 1889. 1 Williamson Avenue. Architect; John Mitchell. Now a cafe/bar.
- Allendale House. 50 Ponsonby Road. Built for wealthy Saddler George Allen in the 1890s this is one of the most imposing examples of a Victorian Mansion.
- Unitarian Church. 1a Ponsonby Road. Architect Thomas White. Built in 1901 and apparently based on a church in Johannesburg, South Africa.
- Former Newton Police Barracks. 1 Ponsonby Road. Architect John Campbell. Built in 1905, an example of the Queen Anne Style. Since the 1970s this has housed Auckland City Council's Community Arts Programmes.
- Former ASB Bank. 8 Ponsonby Road. Architect Edward Bartley. Erected in 1884 as a single storied building, in 1886 a second story was added. currently an Art Gallery. Of special note is the original Gas Street Lamp.
- Ponsonby Mosque. 17 Vermont Street. Built in 1980, it is the first mosque in the whole of New Zealand.
Demographics
Auckland City
Auckland City was the city and local authority covering the Auckland isthmus and most of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, in the North Island of New Zealand. On 1 November 2010 it was amalgamated into the wider Auckland Region under the authority of the new Auckland Council...
shows that generally speaking the Ponsonby area is one of:
- low population growth (9% from 1991–2001)
- average median age
- more than average number of households
- with access to the internet
- with unrelated people living together
- a more than average number of people who:
- have a bachelor or higher degree
- have no religious affiliation
- are employed full-time
- speak English / are New Zealand EuropeanNew Zealand EuropeanThe term New Zealand European refers to New Zealanders of European descent who identify as New Zealand Europeans rather than some other ethnic group...
s - have a high median income
While official statistics are not collected, Ponsonby is also popularly imagined as having a large gay population relative to other Auckland suburbs. A survey by the NZ AIDS Foundation has however found that the stereotype seems to be true, and that the area and the directly adjacent suburbs have a (in comparison) very high percentage of gay people, possibly attracted by the fact that they feel more at ease in an environment where gay people are relatively commonplace.
Education
The secondary schools which serve the area include Western Springs CollegeWestern Springs College
Western Springs College is a co-educational state secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand. It teaches students from years 9 to 13 and is located near both Western Springs Park and Auckland Zoo...
(a co-ed school which was an important early school in Auckland originally located in the central city and called Seddon Memorial Technical College), Auckland Girls' Grammar School
Auckland Girls' Grammar School
Auckland Girls' Grammar School is a New Zealand secondary school for girls located in Newton, in the Auckland central business district. Established in 1888, it is one of the oldest secondary institutions in the country...
, Saint Mary's College
Saint Mary's College Auckland
St Mary's College is a year 7 - 13 integrated Catholic girls' high school situated at 11 New Street, Ponsonby, Auckland.-History:St Mary’s College is the oldest existing secondary school for girls in Auckland and one of the oldest existing schools in New Zealand...
(a Catholic school for girls and one of the oldest schools in New Zealand) and St Paul's College
St. Paul's College, Auckland
St Paul's College is a college for year 7 to 13 boys and offers a Catholic education to its students. It is located in the central Auckland suburb of Ponsonby. The school originates from 1903 when the Marist Brothers opened Sacred Heart College, Auckland on the site...
(a Catholic school for boys with origins which go back more than 100 years).
Ponsonby Intermediate School (P.I.S) on Clarence St is the only intermediate school in the area.
External links
- Ponsonby Road Online (website of the local business association)