Newton, New Zealand

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Newton is an Auckland suburb.

Since the construction of the motorway system in 1965-1975 Newton is now divided into two parts. The Northern part is centred on Karangahape Road , and the southern part is centred on Newton Road. Both K'rd and Newton intersect with Symonds Street to the east. Newton road joins the Great North/Ponsonby & Karangahape Road intersection to the west.

At the southern end of Symonds Street are the Symonds Street Shops. Here Upper Symonds Street has two major intersections with other arterial roads; Newton Road & Khyber Pass Road and Mt Eden Road & New North Road.

Newton is under the local governance of the Auckland City Council.

According to the 2001 census, Newton has a population of 837.

[edit] History of Symonds Street

Symonds Street is named after Captain William Cornwallis Symonds (1810–41) an officer of the 96th Regiment of Foot of the British Army. He came to New Zealand in the early 1830s as agent of the Waitemata and Manukau Land Company and was instrumental in the founding of Auckland and the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. He was one of Governor William Hobson's closest and most effective officials and was one of the first six Police Magistrates in New Zealand as well as Chief Magistrate of Auckland and Deputy Surveyor of New Zealand. During 1841 Symonds accompanied the naturalist Ernst Dieffenbach in his survey of the North Island. Capt Symonds died on 23rd November 1841 in a boating accident on the Manukau Harbour. Following his death his brother John continued to live in the colony; Symonds Street in Onehunga is named after John Cornwallis Symonds.

Before the 1870s there were several brick works in Newton gully which later relocated to New Lynn; a great many 19th century bricks found in Auckland bear the imprint "Newton". From the 1890s onwards it was the location of many small scale industries; bicycle manufacturing, Shirt, clothing & boot factories, upholstery, rattan Furniture & Basket manufacturing etc.

Situated between the retail areas of Karangahape road and Symonds Street, Newton was a fairly densely populated suburb, mainly of a working class nature with many boarding houses. Until the construction of the Motorway System in the 1960s the gulley area was the location of several primary and intermediate level schools and about six churches.

After the motorway was cut through much of the remaining housing stock was utilised for light industrial use and often 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 fairly large apartment blocks.

[edit] Buildings of interest in the Newton area

• Saint Benedicts Roman Catholic Church; St Benedicts Street. This brick structure dates from 1886 and replaces an earlier woodern church which burnt down. Both churches were by Auckland architect Edward Mahoney. Next to the Church is a brick gothic priests house. On the opposite side of the street is a two storied brick house for an order of Nuns.

• Freemasons Hall: also on St Benedicts Street. This is a large 1920s building in the neo-classical style.

• Pigeon Post House: On the corner of Upper Queen St and Newton Road is a small wooden Victorian house. Unremarkable in itself this is one of the very few original houses still remaining in the area. It was the office of Mr Howie's Pigeon-Post service to Great Barrier Island, possibly the first regular air mail service in the world [1896]. Certainly the world’s first 'airmail' stamps were issued for the Great Barrier Pigeon-Gram Service from 1898 to 1908. Next to the house stood large aviaries housing the birds. http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/wings/pigeons3.htm

• The Stables: At the end of Stable lane is located a 19th century wood frame building clad in corrugated iron called "The Stables". This was built as a Livery Stables and has recently been restored by the Auckland City Council as a heritage building.

• Orange Coronation Ballroom, Located at the top of Newton Road is an interesting minor gem of interwar stripped classicism.

• Edinburgh Castle Hotel: Corner of Symonds Street & Newton Road. This is an example of a victorian pub in the earlier simpler verion of the Italianate style.

• Church of the Holy Sepulchre Located on Khyber Pass Road. Built in 1880 to the designs of Edward Mahoney, this Anglican Church has one of the best wooden church interiors in the world.

• Presbyterian Church of St David Opposite the Holy Sepulchre. This is a brick building from 1909 which replaced an earlier wooden Gothic Church by Edward Bartley.

• Former Post Office building: Also located in Upper Symonds Street is this building a fine Art Deco Structure from the 1930s.

• Former Grafton Public Library Located just around the corner on Mt Eden Road is an elegant Edwardian building in the classical style which opened in March 1913.

• Former Eden Vale Hotel.At the intersection of Mt Eden, New North Road and Symonds Street is a building that for many years was the premises of W.H.Tongue, a firm of Undertakers. The building was built as the Eden Vale Hotel but soon after it was finished the inhabitants of Mt Eden voted for the area to become dry. As the building was just within the boundaries of Mt Eden it could not continue to be used as a licienced hotel. The other two pubs in the Upper Symonds Street area were both safely within Auckland City; the Astor Hotel [demolished, cnr Khyber Pass & Symonds St] and the Edinburgh Castle Hotel [extant, cnr Newton Road & Symonds Street].

• Site Three Located on St Benedicts Street in Newton is a modern architectural gem housing commercial offices, a cafe and also a shop selling Simon James furniture. It is quoted by Urbis magazine's Melinda Williams as "strikingly graceful concrete lines of Andrew Patterson's award winning Site Three development" The style queues hark back to The Stables mentioned above.

[edit] References

• The Lively Capital, Auckland 1840-1865. Una Platts. Avon Fine Prints Limited New Zealand 1971.
• 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.
• Karangahape Road Heritage Walk. Edward Bennett. Karangahape Road Business Association 2004.