Newmarket, New Zealand

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Newmarket is an Auckland suburb to the south-east of the central business district.

Until the amalgamation of the borough councils into Auckland City Council in 1989, local governance in Newmarket was by the Newmarket Borough Council. Newmarket Borough was one of the smallest boroughs in the Auckland Region, but also one of the busiest.

Due to increasingly high rents and land costs, most land is used in large commercial developments instead of smaller stores. This is especially true on the main street, Broadway, Newmarket which has two large shopping centres, two movie theatres and many restaurants, bars and cafés.

Since 2004, Māori Television has also been headquartered on the border between Parnell, New Zealand and Newmarket.

Contents 1 History of Newmarket 2 Significant Buildings in the area 3 References 4 External links

[edit] History of Newmarket

The maori called this area as Te Ti Tutahi, ‘the sacred cabbage tree standing alone’, referring to a tree which stood on the corner of Mortimer Pass and Broadway until just after 1900. The Buckland children tried to save offshoots of this tree (Cordyline australis) when it was shamefully cut down, it is possible that some of the cabbage trees around Highwic are descended from this sacred tree.

The earliest subdivision of land in this location took place in June 1841. In 1842 the Epsom Road was formed, which ran from the bottom of town up through Parnell towards the middle of the Auckland isthmus. This was later called the Manukau road until it received it's current name, Parnell Road. At this time what is now Manukau Road was called the Onehunga road.

In 1845 Khyber Pass Road was formed and the intersection of these three roads was called "Hobson's Bridge" referring to a small wooden bridge that crossed over "Hobson's creek". (more or less where the railway track passes near the Olympic Swimming Pool.) That the very small bridge was the most noteworthy landmark of the area gives some idea of the rather empty nature of the landscape.

Around 1851 this area received the name Newmarket because it was the site of the 'New Market' for livestock. Farmers would drive their stock up the Manukau, Great South, or Remuera Roads to the market which was better situated than the earlier stock market in Auckland proper. The presence of the railway station next door was also a great advantage. The market was located to the south of Remuera Road and east of Manukau road.

Overlooking Newmarket on a bluff to the south east is a 19th Century wooden House in the Gothic style called Highwic. The home of a local businessman Alfred Buckland, Highwic is now owned by the Auckland City Council and administered by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Another piece of Auckland land owned by Alfred Buckland located further out of town is still called "Bucklands Beach"

The main road of Newmarket is called Broadway, named apparently after the Broadway Cinema which opened in 1923 showing silent films. Although the building was just a corrugated iron shed behind a modest facade and the cinema itself didn't last very long, the name stuck. Like its New York namesake Newmarket's Broadway developed a rather bright Moderne flashy image in the 1930s & 1940s and by the 1960s the biggest collection of neon signs in the country.

For much of the 20th century most road traffic leaving or entering Auckland passed through Newmarket. Leading off Broadway is the beginning of Remuera Road which is the way to the eastern suburbs while further south Broadway splits into the Great South Road and the secondary southern route, the Manukau Road. The constant flow of traffic only added to Newmarket's fast modern image and helped a great deal with its prosperity.

A significant change to the skyline was the Viaduct erected in 1965 to take one of the early sections of the Southern Motorway over the railway and half a dozen streets. The new motorway system opened up the new industrial suburbs to the south such as Penrose, Mount Wellington etc. This resulted in much of the local industry moving out of Newmarket and along with it many of the working class people who lived in modest houses in the surrounding streets.

Since the 1960s Newmarket has been largely a retail destination, although a certain amount of light industry still exists in the surrounding streets, the most significant of which is the brewing trade. Ever since the 1840s Newmarket has been the location of several breweries. Water falling on nearby Mount Eden emerges in several reliable springs in the Khyber Pass area. Flowing through large amounts of volcanic scoria it is very well filtered. The Brewery buildings on Khyber Pass Road have been rebuilt but are still landmarks of the area.

The Olympic Swimming Pool was constructed in 1939 to the designs of the borough engineer N.F.Alcock. This Art deco building was opened by the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon W.E.Parry in 1940. As well as being the borough's only public amenity the Olympic sized swimming pool was a great asset for the whole of Auckland. Over the years it has been well used and facilitated the hosting of many sporting events by Auckland including the Empire Games in 1950. Recently its streamline - art deco form was fairly drastically altered when a cinema complex was built over the pool which was previously open to the sky. To the north of the Olympic Swimming Pools is the Olympic Park War Memorial.

Located to the south of the Olympic Pools is Lumsden Green, Newmarket's only park. The Green occupies a triangle of land at the intersection of Parnell Road, Broadway and Khyber Pass which had been put aside as a reserve in 1878. The park is ornamented by a modernist fountain, a 19th century canon and a stainless steel sculpture by Marte Szirmay installed in 1969 to mark the Centenary of the Newmarket Highway district. The park is named in honour of David Lumsden, the last mayor of Newmarket before the amalgamation with Auckland City in 1989.

[edit] Significant Buildings in the area

Sadly Newmarket has lost many of its more interesting buildings to redevelopment over the years.

• Highwic 1860s Gillies Avenue, Home of Alfred Buckland; extant & open to the public.

• Junction Hotel 1850s Cnr of Broadway, Great South & Manukau Roads demolished.

• Newmarket Hotel 1850s, rebuilt 1920s Cnr Broadway & Morrow St demolished.

• St Georges Hotel 1880s Broadway opposite Khyber Pass demolished.

• Carlton Club 1890s cnr of Broadway & Khyber Pass Road.

• Former Newmarket Manual Training School 1903, Seccombes Rd, moved to this site from Mortimer Pass Road in 1925.

• Captain Cook Brewery, 1870s - 1920s Khyber Pass road, demolished.

• Newmarket Borough Council Chambers 1920s Broadway demolished.

• Former Post Office, 1910, Broadway John Campbell altered.

• Rialto Picture Theatre 1920s Broadway, Keith Draffin architect. altered.

• Former Auckland Electric Power Board Building 1949 Remuera Road, Lew Piper architect. The top floor by J.I. Van Pels, was added in 1964. extant.

• Newmarket Train Station 1908 George Troup architect. extant.

• Former Jubilee Institute for the Blind, 1907 Edward Bartley architect, Parnell Road, now Parnell Public Library.

• Olympic Swimming Pool 1939, N.F Alcock borough engineer, Parnell Road. altered.

[edit] References

• The Heart of Colonial Auckland, 1865-1910. Terence Hodgson. Random Century NZ Ltd 1992.
• Colonial Architecture In New Zealand. John Stacpoole. A.H & A.W Reed 1976
• Decently And In Order, The Centennial History of the Auckland City Council. G.W.A Bush. Collins 1971.
• Auckland Through A Victorian Lens. William Main. Millwood Press 1977.
• The Changing Face Of Mount Eden. Faye M. Angelo. Mount Eden Borough Council. 1989.
• Newmarket Borough Council Centenary 1885-1985, Kevin Male. Newmarket Borough Council 1985.
• Newmarket, Lost and Found. Dinah Holman. Newmarket Business Association. Bush Press Of New Zealand 2001.

[edit] External links

• An article on Newmarket's early history