Freemans Bay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Suburb: | Freemans Bay |
| City: | Auckland |
| Island: | North Island |
| Surrounded by - to the north |
Saint Marys Bay |
Freemans Bay is the name of a former bay and now inner suburb of Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand. The historical bay was to a large part filled in, and the quarter lost its shoreline to newly reclaimed areas. Historically a poor and often disreputable quarter, it now known for its mix of heritage homes and more recent single-dwelling houses, as well as for its two large parks.
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[edit] Historical bay
Since the turn of the 20th century extensive land reclamation (partly using stone quarried from nearby headlands) has seen Freemans Bay itself disappear. The coastline shifted more than one kilometre to the northwest of the city centre and is now composed of the concrete wharves of Viaduct Basin and the Tank Farm. Most of what was the actual Freemans Bay is now Victoria Park, a very flat area of public land used mostly for sports purposes.
[edit] Suburb
The suburb of Freemans Bay is located near the original shoreline, a little over a kilometre to the southwest of the bay's current location. It is surrounded by the suburbs of St. Marys Bay to the northwest, Ponsonby to the west, Newton to the south, and by the city centre to its east. According to the 2001 census, the Freemans Bay area unit had a usually resident population of 3,678.
Recently (in 2000-2003) the far eastern part of Freemans Bay's shoreline has been transformed into the Viaduct Basin, which served as a headquarters for the various yachting syndicates involved in the America's Cup campaigns of 2000 and 2003, and is now a upper-class (multi-story) residential area, which also includes some prestigious office blocks.
[edit] History
[edit] Māori origins
"Reflecting Waters" or Waiatarau was the Māori name for the bay that is now Victoria Park, although other names relate to the area; such as Wai Kōtota or "the place where the cockles are harvested" and Te Koranga "The scaffolds" (referring to the racks upon which fish would be hung to dry in the sun). A stream called Waikuta "waters of the reed" discharged into the south eastern corner of the bay (bottom of College Hill Road) while the Tunamau "To catch eels" stream came down from what is now Western Park and met the bay at the bottom of what is now Franklin Road.
[edit] European name
Freemans Bay is probably named after Captain William Hobson’s secretary, James Stuart Freeman who apparently lived in this area. He was described by John Logan Campbell in 1844 as “the most disgustingly immoral swindling scoundrel in town”.
Local gossip had it that he was not actually married to the woman he was living with, or that there was something amiss in her past. She apparently had been on intimate terms with Mrs Hobson and others in the Government House circle but after William Hobson's death in 1842 and Mrs Hobson's return to Britain she found herself shut out of genteel society in Auckland. This pained Eleanor Freeman enormously and enraged her husband. Living in a workers cottage on the wrong side of town certainly couldn't have helped her social status. After her early death at the age of 26 on 17th December 1844 Freeman added to the wagging tongues by remarrying just six weeks later. After his marriage to Mary Ann Miller on 29th January 1844 the Freemans left New Zealand.
[edit] Industry and slums
From the earliest period of European occupation Freemans Bay was an unfashionable area. Here on the "wrong side of Queen Street" were located the timber yards, boat building yards, the abattoir, gasworks [1864], the city morgue, nightsoil dump and from 1905 the city rubbish incinerator. Around these occupations were gathered some of the most modest houses in 19th century Auckland. Two land auctions in 1864 in this area were the "Brookville" estate [121 sites] and "Alma Place" [152 sites] The large number of building sites are probably an indication of the small size of the building sections. These workers cottages were built very close together in many cases and often poorly constructed. By the middle of the 20th century the area was considered a slum.
In 1905 Victoria Park was created which included sports grounds, a Sports pavilion and a children's playground. The playground equipment was donated by Mr John Court of the John Court Department Store.In 1909 a kindergarten for the local children was opened. It soon ran into financial problems, however, from which it was rescued by John Logan Campbell. This brick building has been in a derelict condition for some years and is awaiting restoration. During the 1918 flu epidemic, the sports pavilion was used as a depot for corpses awaiting transportation by rail to the city cemeteries.
[edit] Urban renewal
In the 1930s the Auckland City Council set up a committee called "The Decadent Areas Committee" (later renamed as the "Housing Committee") largely to deal with the area.
When the motorway system was constructed from 1955 onwards it was an ideal excuse to demolish large areas of Freemans Bay in the name of slum clearance and progress. The motorway cut large swathes through Freemans Bay taking out good housing as well as slum quality buildings. Council flats and townhouses were built in the area during the 1960s and 1970s. Later, during the 1980s and 1990s, the remaining victorian house stock was gentrified along with the neighbouring suburbs of Ponsonby and St Marys Bay and they are now some of Auckland's most fashionable and desirable residences.
Across the road from Victoria Park stands Victoria Park Market, which occupies the buildings of the previous City Council Works Depot. Built between 1905 & 1915 and known as "the Destructor", this facility burnt a great deal of the city's rubbish for many years. It was closed in 1972, and in 1983 the brick industrial complex was converted into the market.
[edit] References
- Auckland's Original Shoreline - Campbell, Nerida; Heart of the City, 2005
- The Lively Capital, Auckland 1840-1865 - Platts, Una; Avon Fine Prints Limited, New Zealand 1971
