Ponsonby, New Zealand


Ponsonby is an inner-city suburb of Auckland 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 nightclubs are located along Ponsonby Road.
The borders of Ponsonby are often seen as being rather fluid, taking in St Mary's Bay and Herne Bay to the north and including Freemans Bay to the east and Grey Lynn to the south - Ponsonby is properly bounded by Jervois Road to the North and Richmond Road to the south but extends down Ponsonby road all the way to the Karangahape road corner - the boundary with Freemans Bay to the east is less clear. The area was originally a working class to middle class area.
From the Great Depression until the 1980s it contained many rundown buildings, and had a somewhat 'colourful' reputation. This was partially due to some criminal elements, its many Maori and Pacific Island residents and student flats and an association with Auckland's arts and gay/lesbian scenes.
Ponsonby includes an area called Three Lamps which is located at the north end of the street. This name is derived from a 19th-century Lamppost, There are other locations called Three Lamps for the same reason; intersections in the UK - Crewe and Totterdown in Bristol which might conceivably have influenced the derivation here. There was also a Pub with that name in Swansea, Wales and a location in Macau in China.
The suburb has undergone extensive gentrification over the last two decades, arguably returning it to its largely middle class origins. Its postcode is 1011.
The Māori name for the ridge is Te Rimu Tahi.
Ponsonby is named after Ponsonby Road which runs the length of the ridge from the Karangahape Road intersection to the south to the Three Lamps intersection to the north. En route there are three major intersections; Williamson Avenue, which is the main thoroughfare of Grey Lynn to the west, Richmond Road, which divides Grey Lynn and Ponsonby and Franklin Road, which is the main road in Freemans Bay to the east.

Name

The area now referred to as Three Lamps was originally called Dedwood in 1845, after a farm in Shelly Beach Road, which was apparently named after a Captain Dedwood. The name was changed to Ponsonby in 1873, apparently derived from Ponsonby Road which first appears on an 1850s Map of Auckland.
Ponsonby is now applied to a larger area. There are various people who might have inspired the name Ponsonby:
Sir Henry Ponsonby became private secretary to the Queen just before the name change in 1873; it is unlikely however that his name would have been very well known and Ponsonby Road appears as early as the mid 1850s. His surname is thus the least likely source for the naming of the road
The Hon. Colonel Stephen Ponsonby Peacocke was a member of the Legislative Council. He was living on Ponsonby Road in the 1860s and died in 1872. His Christian name is an unlikely source for the naming of the road and there is a map from the mid 1850s showing Ponsonby Road which may predate Peacocke's arrival in New Zealand in 1858.
The Vandeleur connection: It is widely believed that what is now Ponsonby Road was originally called Vandeleur Road, but this is not backed up by evidence. One of the earliest maps of Auckland, does show a Vandeleur Road in the general area. However it does not run in the same direction as the existing Ponsonby Road and it was probably never laid out - if it had been it would run north–south and sit between the existing Howe and Hepburn Streets.
Many of the early street names of Auckland were derived from military men involved in the Napoleonic Wars; this includes Wellington and Nelson. The Ponsonby area contains several examples; Collingwood, Cockburn, Anglesea, Picton, Vandeleur and Ponsonby.
Major-General Sir John Vandeleur was a Divisional Commander at Waterloo and Colonel Frederick Ponsonby was a regimental commander under him. His relative Major-General Sir William Ponsonby was also at Waterloo. Neither Frederick or William Ponsonby or Vandeleur came to New Zealand but they are probably the source for the street names and ultimately the suburb's name.

History

1841 Jane Griffin, wife of Sir John Franklin the Governor of Tasmania, visits Auckland. During her time in Auckland she walks up a track in the Ponsonby area subsequently named for her as Franklin Road.
mid1840s Governor Hobson's secretary James Stuart Freeman lives in the area subsequently known as "Freemans Bay".
1848 The area now known as Ponsonby is included in the "Hundred of Auckland".
1851 The "Suburban West Ward" is created which includes what is now Ponsonby.
1854 James O'Neill's house becomes St. Anne's School for Maori Girls run by the Sisters of Mercy. Responding to a Maori request for holy women to teach the children, the sisters of Mercy had arrived in Auckland from Ireland in 1850 already fluent in the Maori language. Their first school and orphanage was situated near St Patrick's Cathedral.
1854 St Mary's College for Catechists on the North Shore is transferred to St Mary's Bay, St. Marys School for Boys & a Seminary are built on of Crown Grant land at the end of Waitemata St.
1858 The Church of the Immaculate Conception is built.
1859 New Street is put through the middle of the St Mary Mount estate and Bishop Pompallier presents land on the eastern side of the street for the creation of St. Mary's College. Almost unaided the sisters erect a three-storey convent building and open it in 1861. The only surviving building from this period is the Kauri St Mary's Chapel constructed in 1865 by Edward Mahoney for £1100.
1860s Many Roman Catholics buy land in the new subdivisions in order to be near the Catholic centre with its Church, Convent & Schools. Names such as "Dublin" & "Green" reflect this development.
1860 Bishop Pompallier returns from Europe with a group of French nuns. Under his direction they form the Congregation of the Holy Family, which concentrates on teaching Maori girls.
1861 St. Anne's boarding school occupies O'Neill's former house.
1862 The Convent is completed. The new order of the Holy Family takes over teaching at the school. The order now consists of Maori as well as French Sisters.
1862 The Bishop takes over O'Neill's former house as his official residence.
1863 The Bishop sells more land, retaining the with the Bishop's House, The Church of the Holy Family and the Convent of the Holy Family. The Nazareth Institute for Maori and Half-Caste Girls is founded.
1863 The 1863 map of Auckland shows the road from Karangahape Rd to Franklin Rd labelled as Ponsonby Rd. At this time Jervois Rd is also called Ponsonby Rd. The map does not show the piece of road from Franklin Rd to College Hill that is called Vandeleur Rd.
1866 All Saints Parish is formed and a Sunday School opened.
1866 St. Mary's Convent, with its dormitories and Chapel, is built.
1865-68 The Suffolk Hotel is built on College Hill.
1869 - 70 The Convent of the Holy Family is destroyed by fire. The Catholic Bishop is forced by his mortgagee to sell his remaining land, including the Bishop's House. The buyer is a Mr. Bennett who demolishes the Church of the Immaculate Conception. The Bishop resigns and leaves, leading to the dissolution of the order he had formed; the Order of the Holy Family. St. Mary's Convent remains.
1871 The Ponsonby and Dedwood Highway District is formed.
1871 Dedwood Post office is opened.
1872 The Anglican parish of All Saints is officially defined.
1872 The Ponsonby Anglican householders meet with local Education Board. The schoolroom of All Saints Church is rented at 30 per year to house Dedwood School. By 1874 Dedwood School is attended by 100 girls and 74 boys.
1873 The name of the area is officially changed from Dedwood to Ponsonby.
1873 Bishop Croke, the second Catholic Bishop of Auckland, buys back the land with the Bishop's house on it. In 1874 the wooden house is moved to its present location at 57 St. Mary's Road.
1873 A contest for the design of City Park is held. Sir George Grey and Judge Thomas Gillies donate specimen trees.
1876 Ponsonby becomes part of the Newton Constituency.
1876 St Stephens Presbyterian Church, Jervois Rd, is built.
1877 St Johns Church, Ponsonby Road, is built.
1879 Western Park opens. However work on the project continues for several decades.
1879 A school opens in Beresford St known as Harrison's School named after its headmaster.
1882 Ponsonby is amalgamated with the Auckland City Council area.
1883 Lieutenant-General Sir William Jervois becomes Governor of New Zealand . Part of Ponsonby Road is renamed Jervois Road after him.
1884 The first horse tram service from Queen Street to Ponsonby is started. The route is from Three Lamps to Queen St via K'Rd, Pitt St, & Grey St. The fare is threepence. Trams ran every 15 minutes from 6.30am to 10.30pm at an average speed of an hour.
1885 to 1890 An economic slump follows the stock market crash. "hole streets such as John Street and Clarence Street had not a soul living in them. Workmen's cottages handy to Queen Street brought half a crown per week: further out, say Ponsonby, such cottages were gladly let free of rent".
1886 The water reservoir at the corner of K'Rd and Ponsonby road is built.
1886 The Ponsonby Baptist Church is built. The 1778 Avery pipe organ is said to be originally from Windsor Castle, a gift from Queen Victoria to Old St. Pauls, Emily Place, which had been demolished the previous year.
1886 - 1887 The Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart is built on the corner of O'Neill St and Ponsonby Road. This took over the role of Parish Church from St Mary's Chapel.
1887 The Ponsonby Seventh Day Adventist Church in McKelvie Street is opened.
1889 The Grey Lynn Borough Council Chambers & Volunteer Fire Station in Williamson Avenue is built by John Mitchell.
1893 The Ponsonby Catholic Parish School building in O'Neill St is opened; in 1913 when the school is moved to Vermont St the building became a hall.
1894 The New Bishop's Palace is constructed to the designs of Pugin & Pugin. The Bishop's Palace was partly funded by donations from all over the world, including 5000 schools in Europe and the US, the Lord Mayor of London and an Archduchess of Austria. An imposing dark brick gothic pile, it is believed to be the first house in Auckland built to include electric lighting.
1897 The Catholic Order of the Little Sisters of the Poor is established in NZ. They were first located in a two-storey house in Hepburn St and from 1904 in Tweed St.
1902 The Ponsonby Fire Station in St Marys Road is built.
1903 The brick building housing the Auckland Gas Company in Beaumont St is constructed.
1903 3 December after a blazing row the Ponsonby Yacht club take up residence at the Rob Roy Hotel.
1905 Victoria Park is created. John Court, proprietor of the John Court Department Store donates money for Playground equipment.
1905 Construction of the City Council Works Depot is started.
1909 The kindergarten in Victoria Park is built. When it encounters financial difficulties in 1910, Logan Campbell purchases it to rescue the institution.
1911 The Ponsonby Post Office is built. John Campbell - Government Architect
1914 The Auckland City Council allocates £3000 for six municipal houses in Clarence Street. This is the Council's first venture into public housing.
1918 The wooden grandstand in Victoria Park is used as a temporary morgue during the great influenza epidemic. From here, the corpses are taken to the train station at the bottom of town and transported out to Waikumete cemetery in west Auckland. In Auckland almost 1700 people perish.
1920 Augustus Braithwaite, the Ponsonby postmaster, is murdered at his home in Shelly Beach Rd. The murderer Dennis Gunn was hanged as a result of the first use of fingerprint evidence in a trial in New Zealand.
1928 The ASB Bank in Jervois Rd is built.
1942-1945 Victoria Park is occupied by a military camp for WWII American troops. Air-raid drills and black outs are commonplace.
1956 The electric tram service is discontinued, the tracks are torn up, the overhead wires continue to be used for the electric trolley buses.
1950s The foreshore of St. Mary's bay disappears under the approaches to the Harbour Bridge. Cut off from the sea a great number of small commercial boat-yards are forced to close and many private boat-slips which have been used for almost a century fall into disuse. The Auckland Harbour Board planned to fill in Westhaven completely, but a group of local residents including engineers and architects donated their services to create Westhaven Marina.
1960s The motorway viaduct over Victoria Park is constructed.
1970s The electric trolley bus system is discontinued – the overhead wires are taken down.
1979 The New Zealand Muslim Association starts construction work on the first mosque in New Zealand at 17 Vermont Street, Ponsonby.
1980s Assembly of God Church is erected next to the Harbour Bridge approaches at Victoria Park.
1983 Inactive since 1972, the Destructor at Victoria Park is saved from demolition by being converted into use as Victoria Park Market.
~1984~ Ponsonby Shopping Village is established by Gene and Maneeka Campbell. The New Zealand Herald's front-page article for the completion and opening of this building was titled,
"Ponsonby's on the move again".
mid 1980s Two high rise apartment blocks are constructed on Jervois Rd. Following this, the Auckland City Council amends the height restrictions to make it impossible for similar buildings to be erected in the future.
1990s The LGBT presence in the Ponsonby area is expressed by various annual events, such as Coming Out Day parades & The Hero Parade.
1990s Other festivals develop in the area: the Grey Lynn Festival & Pasifika and the iconic Franklin Road Christmas lights.
1990s Less restrictive liquor laws result in a large increase in small restaurants & bars. Auckland City Council's relaxation of bylaws prohibiting pavement cafes encourages large numbers of cafes to appear.
1990s Grey Lynn is granted heritage protection under the building laws. Grey Lynn is the largest concentration of wooden Victorian buildings in the world.
1990s the Link bus service commences.
2000 A Supermarket is built on the site of the gasholders at the bottom of College Hill.
2002 The Auckland Gas Company buildings in Beaumont street are converted into a retail & residential apartment complex.
2013 2013 sees the return of the LGBT presence in the Ponsonby area with the Auckland Pride Festival Parade

Favoured suburb

From as early as the 1850s St Mary's Bay and Herne Bay were favoured by several prosperous Aucklanders for their harbour views. They built elegant "marine villas" with extensive gardens and private jetties from which they commuted to the bottom of Queen Street. These were largely accessible only from the water as the Ponsonby and Jervois ridges and the area beyond were mostly coarse scrubland. A number of these 'marine villas' still stand, now surrounded by later Edwardian suburban developments.
As College Hill was too steep for horse-drawn vehicles, all traffic from the centre of Auckland came via Karangahape Road. After the establishment of the horse bus service in the 1880s a small shopping centre developed at the end of the route. This shopping centre prospered as it was able to serve the larger properties in Herne Bay, the small workers cottages in College Hill and the new middle-class houses of Grey Lynn. Eventually the tram route was extended along Jervois Road, which saw more residential and retail development.
The area now called Three Lamps was originally a farm called "Dedwood", apparently named after a friend of the first owners; a Captain Dedwood, who may, or may not, have served in the armed forces in New Zealand. What is now called Jervois Road was at that time called Ponsonby Road. There was apparently both a Dedwood Road Board and a Ponsonby Road Board as well as references to both a Dedwood District Board and a Ponsonby District Board. Ponsonby definitely sounded more elegant than Dedwood so by the 1870s Ponsonby was apparently used by many people to refer to the whole area. Around 1873 the name was changed from Dedwood to Ponsonby although throughout the mid 1870s public announcements refer to 'Dedwood and/or Ponsonby' just to be safe.
The name change may have sounded better in real estate advertisements, but it initially caused problems; in the New Zealand Herald, Volume X, Issue 3608, 4 June 1873, Page 2 it is mentioned that the change caused problems with the area's membership of both the Harbour Board and the Domain Board as their legal documents specified the Dedwood Road Board and Dedwood District Boards.
Superintendent, should have intimated to the rate-payers of the Dedwood district, that by their adopting a less funereal name they would disfranchise themselves. This problem was eventually sorted out and in any case in 1882 Ponsonby, along with Karangahape and Grafton was amalgamated with Auckland City.
In the 1950s and 1960s 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. The 1950s and 1960s saw many Pacific Islanders arriving in the country and they tended to take up residence in low cost areas - Ponsonby was one of them. By the 1970s, the combination of artists, bohemians, gays and lesbians, and Polynesian migrant workers, attracted by the low rents created a distinct culture in the area, with which the area is still largely identified in the popular imagination of Auckland.
However, beginning in the 1980s a process of gentrification and ethnic transition took place in the area. This was reflective of patterns in other Western cities, but here it dramatically altered the suburb by the late-1990s, as the apparent predominant population of Polynesians was replaced by Pakeha as described in the Ian Middleton novel Mr Ponsonby. By the early 2000s, Ponsonby became widely perceived as a spatial centre of Auckland's so-called creative class.
Upper Middle Class Professionals, usually working in the better-paid professions, as well as the culture industry became an obvious presence in the area. This also reintroduced many more children into the area; the local schools, which through the 1970s and 1980s had had shrinking roles now started growing in size and the children attending them were now predominantly white rather than brown.
The retail shops changed in character as well. Ponsonby Road was previously lined with second hand appliance & furniture stores, junk shops, Pacific Island fruit & vegetable shops and cheap eateries. By the late 1990s these had been largely replaced with flash bars, restaurants, 'gorgeous things' shops, dress boutiques and upmarket hairdressers. In the 1960s most people regarded Ponsonby as little better than a slum; now it is seen as a place of consumption of up-market consumer goods and dining and drinking experiences for the city's upper middle classes.
The 2000s saw a number of traffic accidents along Ponsonby Road, which is both an important traffic arterial route and a favourite nightspot. As a result, the speed limit along Ponsonby Road was lowered to 40 km/h zone in 2009.

Notable buildings and landmarks

Notable buildings in the suburb include:

Three Lamps Area

Ponsonby, comprising the statistical areas of Ponsonby West and Ponsonby East, had a population of 5,730 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 153 people since the 2013 census, and an increase of 243 people since the 2006 census. There were 2,085 households. There were 2,763 males and 2,967 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.93 males per female, with 951 people aged under 15 years, 1,299 aged 15 to 29, 2,970 aged 30 to 64, and 513 aged 65 or older.
Ethnicities were 83.4% European/Pākehā, 8.8% Māori, 8.6% Pacific peoples, 9.2% Asian, and 3.2% other ethnicities.
The proportion of people born overseas was 29.6%, compared with 27.1% nationally.
Although some people objected to giving their religion, 58.2% had no religion, 31.2% were Christian, and 5.6% had other religions.
Of those at least 15 years old, 2,415 people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 273 people had no formal qualifications. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 3,063 people were employed full-time, 639 were part-time, and 144 were unemployed.
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 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

is a state-integrated Catholic boys' secondary school with a roll of students. Marist School is a Catholic coeducational contributing primary school with a roll of which shares the same site.
Ponsonby Intermediate is a coeducational intermediate school with a roll of. Richmond Road School is a coeducational contributing primary school with a roll of.
Rolls are as of
Other secondary schools nearby include Western Springs College, Auckland Girls' Grammar School and St Mary's College.

Notable residents

Ponsonby is home to the Ponsonby Ponies rugby league club and Ponsonby Rugby Football Club.