Brooklyn, Wellington, New Zealand

Brooklyn, a suburb of the capital city of New Zealand, Wellington, has a friendly and vibrant village atmosphere^{[citation needed]} which has attracted many young families whilst retaining its identity as older suburb with timber villas and varied architecture.

[edit] Geography

[edit] Location

Brooklyn stands just 3km south of Wellington’s central business district on the eastern slopes of the hills above Happy Valley. (The hills and the valley both extend south towards Owhiro Bay on Cook Strait.)

Nearby suburbs and areas include:

To the north:
- Aro Valley and Highbury

To the east:
- Mount Cook

To the south:
- Vogeltown and Mornington

To the west:
- Kowhai Park, Panorama Heights, Mitchelltown, Karori

[edit] Parks and Town Belt

[edit] Central Park

Central Park (named after the park of the same name in New York) separates Brooklyn from the city. The park was established in 1913 on Town Belt land. There are a set of wrought iron gates at the main entrance to the park which were presented by the then Mayor, John Pearce Luke in 1920.

During World War II between 1942 and 1944 Americanforces established a military camp in the park. In October 1942 building work started with an initial requirement to accommodate 416 men of the US Marine Corps. The partly built camp could accept some occupants by 22 November 1942, and by July 1943 it could accommodate 540 personnel.

The US Marines requested a further expansion of the camp but with the war situation improving the expansion was cancelled.

[edit] Tanera Park

Tanera Park is located to the north and north-west of Central Park on the opposite side of Ohiro Road, Brooklyn. The park is sometimes wrongly named Ohiro Park, due to its proximity to Ohiro Road. It has a number of sports facilities including soccer, cricket, and artificial surfaces as well as a block of changing rooms.

In 1991 the council set aside some of the park as trial to help low-income families and community-organisations to grow their own vegetables. These have become know as the Tanera Community Gardens and are managed by the Mokai Kainga Trust. There are currently 33 plots in the gardens.

[edit] Elliott Park

Elliot Park lies on the western side of Brooklyn, adjacent to Mitchell Street and Karepa Street. The park has a children's play ground.

[edit] Town Belt

In the first plan of Wellington, drawn in 1840 by the New Zealand Company, large areas of open land were set aside for public use as the Town Belt. In 1873 the Town Belt was granted to the city of Wellington as public recreation grounds for Wellington residents; it then consisted of 1061 acres and is still held and managed by Wellington City Council.

However, the New Zealand Company did not just have public health in mind. Part of the reason for the creation of the Town Belt was that the Company wanted to keep land prices high in the areas known in the plan as 'town acres' thus ensuring more favourable returns for its investors (the 'town acres' owners). Another possible intention was to set the social classes apart by dividing the town with planted areas, i.e. those who could not afford the expensive land would by default (planners hoped) form a working class labour force.

Both Central and Tanera Parks form part of the Wellington Town Belt.

[edit] Wind-turbine

The turbine with Matiu/Somes Island, Mount Victoria and the Miramar Peninsula in the background

The Electricity Corporation of New Zealand installed the Brooklyn wind-turbine on Pol Hill above north-western Brooklyn in March 1993 as part of a research project into wind-power generation. The Corporation chose the Brooklyn site due to Wellington's "higher than normal" wind patterns and to gain maximum exposure in the viewsapres of Wellingtonians. The landmark turbine, visible from many parts of the city including parts of the central city, stands at 299 meters above sea level, and its site provides spectacular panoramas of the city, Cook Strait and the upper South Island. It became the oldest operating wind-turbine in New Zealand ^[1]

Brooklyn has adopted the turbine as a local icon. When the pavements were re-sealed some years after the turbine was installed ceramic tiles depicting the wind turbine were implanted into the foot-paths.

By present day standards, and compared with many turbines now being installed in New Zealand, the Brooklyn turbine is a relatively small machine:

Nominal annual generation: 1 GWh
Installed capacity: 0.23 MW
Blade length: 13.5 metres
Height: 31.5 metres
Weight: 22.8 tonnes

A number of microprocessors constantly monitor and control the turbine and will stop the blades when wind speeds are too high and then re-start it when more favourable conditions return. The power generated – enough for 60 to 80 homes - is delivered into the local network for general distribution. Unlike the Tararua windfarm, the Brooklyn turbine has never killed a bird^[2]

Meridian Energy has managed the turbine since the company was formed in 1999 with the deregulation of the New Zealand electricity market.

[edit] War Memorial

Brooklyn's World War I war memorial overlooks northern Brooklyn from the top of Sugarloaf Hill. It bears the names of the 48 Brooklyn soldiers who died in that war.

Soon after the War ended a movement to build a memorial began, with the funds being raised in two years. The Brooklyn Returned Services Association (RSA) chose as a monument a carved marble statue depicting a soldier with hat in hand, looking towards the harbour heads through which sailed the troopships bearing those who would not return. It was unveiled by Col. Mitchell D.S.O. M.P on 22 September 1922.

For around 16 years a board of trustees maintained the memorial before passing it over to Wellington City Council. In 2003 it underwent a major nine-month restoration project which involved re-securing it to the concrete pads that it stands on as well as cleaning, restoring plasterwork, removal of rust and replacing parts that had over the years gone missing.

The inscription on the elaborate pedestal reads:

The motherland called and they went and these men died for their country.

Soldiers named are as follows:

W.H. Archer	J.E. Armstrong	H.L. Birkett	F.A. Brill	H.T. Brewer
R. Cochrane	R. Crawford	L.L. Davidson	H.C. Doney	W.C. Drummond
C.I.M. Dryden	B.H. Driver	F.H. Dunner	B.F. Elliott	W.S. Evenden
W.Mc. A. Calpraith	C.P. Greeks	R.S. Greeks	C. Crindrod	A. Hadley
C.M. Herzoc	J.J.C. Herzoc	A.F. Hill	J.L. Howie	H.M. Jones
D.M. Lawson	J.R.R. Leys	W.H. McKenzie	C.E. Makeham	J.C. Mill
A.C.H. Millar	A.J. Wilson	R. Mollinson	A. Moore	K.R. Murray
R. Newman	W.C. Pickering	C.H. Rose	J.D. Rutherford	J.D. Shaddick
R.A. Sinclair	Arthur Smith	Alex Smith	E.P. Smith	J. Teaze
J.B. Walter	A. Watters	F.S. Westwood

[edit] Pol Hill Gun Emplacements

The well-preserved Pol Hill anti-aircraft gun emplacements were built in March 1942 for the capital's defence in response to fears of Japanese air-raids or invasion. Once completed the battery had accommodation for 109 army personnel.

The battery is located slightly north of the Wind Turbine within the new Panorama Heights subdivision. The land it sits on has been allocated as reserve land. The site backs on to the firebreak running around the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary.

[edit] Buildings

[edit] Architectyural styles

Brooklyn has a number of different styles of buildings, although very few of the older cottage style remain. One of the oldest recorded in the general area stands in Nairn Street in the neighbouring suburb of Mount Cook. It is dated to 1858, and is maintained as The Colonial Cottage Museum. Brooklyn itself contains examples of many building styles including:

Villa (Simple villas) - from c. 1895
Bay villa - from c. 1910
California bungalow - from c.1920
State House - between 1930 and 1940
Bungalow - from c. 1960

[edit] Villa (Simple villas)

The Simple Villa, a style of home built from around 1895 often exemplifies structures larger than the cottages and Victorian style properties that were built prior to this time. They generally consisted of a hallway with two rooms off each side and an indoor bathroom at the end. There was often a ‘lean-to’ attached to the back of the house that would allow for a storage area that might include a wash house. With the design of the property having the chimney in the house (as opposed to being attached to an exterior side wall) a fireplace could be installed in the sitting room and kitchen both using the same chimney - this was known as a back-to-back. The homes were built from timber with most of the period features, including architraves, skirting boards, doors and windows able to be purchased as standard items from timber merchants.

[edit] Buildings of special interest

The Sutch House (located on Todman Street), was designed by Ernst Plischke and built between 1953 and 1956. The house is located a short distance up the hill influences of the Austrian Neues Bauen (New Construction) movement, of which Plischke had been a part of in the 1930s. The Sutch House was restored by Wellington architect Alistair Luke during 2003 and later received the New from the one that was owned and lived in by Ernst Plischke. At the time it was regarded as one of New Zealand’s most radical house designs. It is still one of the country’s most iconic residences with its modernist design and Zealand Institute of Architects Resene Award for Enduring Architecture.

Tower Studio, located on Karepa Street, is a purpose built five-level Tuscan tower inspired by the towers of San Gimignano. It overlooks the native bush reserve in Brooklyn with an open belvedere offering 360° views.

[edit] History

[edit] Pre-European

In pre-European times the Brooklyn hills Māori knew the hills as Turanga-rere, translated as "the waving plumes of a war-party". One interpretation^{[citation needed]} suggests this may refer to "all trees on the hills waving in the wind like hair adornments on warriors dancing the haka".^{[citation needed]}

Brooklyn and the wider Wellington region then and now hosted a number of iwi, or tribes, all represented through a Charter of Understanding with Wellington Regional Council signed in July 2000:

Te Āti Awa
Muaupoko
Rangitāne o Wairarapa
Ngāti Raukawa
Ngāti Toa (Ngāti Toarangatira)
Te Atiawa ki Whakarongotai

[edit] European settlement

European settlement began in the area during the 1840s. In January 1842 the ship 'The London' commanded by Captain Attwood set sail for its second voyage to Wellington, New Zealand from Gravesend, England. It carried 700 tons of cargo, 137 adults and 39 children. On 1 May 1842 the ship arrived in Wellington, with John and Louise Fitchett and their seven children amongst the passengers.

The young colony established a district of Ohiro (Owhiro) in the early 1840s from the land surrounding Port Nicholson (officially renamed Wellington Harbour in 1980). Settlers could access the new district only via the steep Ohiro Road from present-day Aro Street. The land became subdivided into many blocks. In 1852 John Fitchett purchased a number of these blocks and established a dairy farm called Ohiro Farm, known also as Fitchett’s Farm. A township named Fitchett Town formed in the 1860s; it gained its new name "Brooklyn" in 1888 when the then land owners, Aston B. Fitchett (son of John Fitchett d.1875) and R.B. Todman offered the main subdivision the main subdivision for sale. The offer included 208 lots of Fitchett’s Farm that were next to Brooklyn.

In 1899, after the sale, a further subdivision took place, and the main roads of Mitchell and Todman Streets were laid out. These were then intersected with Reuben, Bruce, Laura and Charlotte Avenues, Tanera Crescent, Apuka Street and Sugar Loaf Road (the site of the War Memorial). In 1902 Brooklyn was extended further up the Brooklyn Hills when Ashton B. Fitchett sold additional lots of land. Both Karepa and Apuka Streets were extended onto this newly available land.

As Brooklyn became more popular, Wellingtonians proposed a tramway. As the existing route to Brooklyn via Aro Street and Ohiro Road was too steep an easier tramway route was cut through the town belt by Central Park. Opened in 1906, this route later became today’s Brooklyn Road. The tramway closed in 1957, and the City - Brooklyn route is now served by numbers 7 and 8 buses. The number 7 (City - Brooklyn - Kingston) route is electrified as part of the Wellington City trolley bus service.

Brooklyn takes its name from the borough in New York City, which in turn is named after the Dutch city Breukelen. When Brooklyn was subdivided by a syndicate led by J.F.E. Wright (a Wellington Provincial Councillor between 1861 and 1863, and then for Karori and Makara between 1873 and 1876), they named a number of its streets after former US Presidents:

Grover Cleveland - Cleveland Street
Calvin Coolidge (in office: 1923-1929)- Coolidge Street
James Garfield - Garfield Street
William Henry Harrison - Harrison Street
Herbert Hoover - Hoover Street
Thomas Jefferson - Jefferson Street
Abraham Lincoln - Lincoln Street
William McKinley - McKinley Crescent
William Taft - Taft Street
George Washington - Washington Avenue

Interestingly, other suburbs of Wellington also have thematic names for their roads, as follows:

Suburb	Theme
Kingston	Canadian places
Hataitai	Maori names (predominantly flora and fauna)
Island Bay	Major European rivers
Karori	Old residents
Khandallah	Indian
Ngaio	Old residents
Redwood (Tawa)	Oxford Colleges
Strathmore	Earl of Strathmore’s Estate
Wadestown	Early settlers
Wilton	English counties
Woodridge	Arboreal

[edit] Demographics

Population: The 2001 Census of Population and Dwellings counted 3,684 people defined as “usually resident population”. This represented an increase of 9.6% from the previous census of 1996. In comparison Wellington City and New Zealand increased by 3.9% and 3.3% respectively.

Male / female ratio: The 2001 census recorded a ratio of male to female of 1:1.104, or 47.5% male and 52.5% female. This compares to Wellington City and New Zealand with 1:1.067 and 1:1.050 respectively.

Age-profile: 16.4% of people in Brooklyn were under the age of 15 years, compared with 18.5% in Wellington City and 22.7% for all of New Zealand. 7.1% of people in Brooklyn were aged 65 years and over compared with 8.6% of Wellington City and 12.1% for all of New Zealand.

Ethnic Groups: In 2001 87.9% of people defined themselves as European compared with 81.7% and 80.1% for Wellington City and New Zealand respectively.

Employment: The unemployment rate for Brooklyn is 4.9% compared with 6.2% and 7.5% for Wellington City and New Zealand respectively. 32.1% of those resident in Brooklyn in 2001 defined themselves in the Professionals occupational group.

[edit] Facilities and amenities

[edit] Cinema

Brooklyn hosts the Penthouse Cinema, located on Ohiro Road just south of Cleveland Street. It was constructed for the Ranish family in the art deco style, and opened on 15th June 1939 as the Vogue Theatre. The Ranish family ran the cinema until 1951, when it was taken over by the Vogue Company Limited. The Vogue Company turned the cinema into a television studio where a number of TV commercials were shot. The building was renamed the Penthouse Cinema when it was bought by Merv and Carol Kisby in 1975. Over the years since then additional screens have been added, as well as refurbishment of much of the interior in keeping with its original style.

[edit] Bars

The Windmill Bar and Cafe, Cleveland Street
The Cornerstore, Todman Street

[edit] Restaurants

The Golden Lotus Restaurant ( Ohiro Road) serves Thai food.
Penthouse Cafe, located in the Penthouse Cinema on Ohiro Road, serves varied brunch/lunch and dinner menus.
The Cornerstore, Todman Street, bar and restaurant serving New Zealand cuisine and wines and beers.

[edit] Take Away

Nan King Takeaways, Cleveland Street, variety of foods, including Fish ’n’ Chips, Thai, Chinese, Indonesian.
Burger Wisconsin, Cleveland Street, burgers and fries.
Brooklyn Fish Supply, Cleveland Street, Fish ’n’ Chips and also sells fresh fish.
Khana Khazana, Cleveland Street, Indian tandoori cuisine.

[edit] Library

Brooklyn has its own branch library, opened on 16 February 1905 at 22 Harrison Street as the second branch library of the main Central Library. It opened with just 350 books in its collection and for only 9 hours per week; the Librarian lived in a flat at the rear of the building. In 1960 the library moved to the present building on the corner of Harrison and Cleveland Streets. The original entrance was in Harrison Street, but in 1992 this was closed off and ramp access was provided in Cleveland Street, enabling increasing numbers of parents with pushchairs to enter easily. The original building is now the Brooklyn Playcentre.

[edit] Schools

Brooklyn has two schools within its boundaries:

Brooklyn School
St Bernard’s School

[edit] Brooklyn School

Brooklyn School, a co-ed state primary school located at 58 Washington Ave, opened in November 1888 and caters for students from new entrants (five year olds) through to year eight (twelve year olds), and has been between 390-450 children on the roll each year. The current Principal is Chris Bryant.

[edit] St Bernard’s School

St Bernard’s School is a Co-Ed Catholic school located at 40 Taft Street, a quiet private cul-de-sac. The school started in 1935 when the Sisters of Mercy provided two sisters, Boniface and Fabian. It opened on 5th February of that year as St Anthony's School Brooklyn, located in the church on Jefferson Street - the church building itself opened in June 1911. At the time the school opened there were 44 Catholic children attending the local state school, 43 of which transferred to St Anthony’s on opening day. By the end of the year the roll had risen to 69.

The building remained as one large church hall, installing a temporary partition during the week to create a second classroom. On Fridays after school had finished the partition and desks were removed and replaced with pews for the Mass on Sunday, after which the desks and partition were put back ready for school on Monday morning.

In 1949 following the procurement of land at the present site on Taft Street by the then Parish Priest Father Paul Kane, the church was relocated and a new school built. However, in 1961 the school (and the parish) was renamed; the Priest who enacted this was called Bernard. The school continued to be run by the Sisters of Mercy until in 1973 Doreen Barry became the first lay Principal.

Today, St Bernard’s School Brooklyn prides itself as an urban Catholic primary school close to the shops, buses and only 5 minutes from the city centre. The current Principal is John McKenzie who has held the position since 2004.

[edit] Churches

Brooklyn Anglican Church
St Matthew's Joint Parish, 96 Washington Avenue. St Matthew's is a combined Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian Church formed in the 1970s when 5 national churches united.

[edit] Transport

Three bus routes serve Brooklyn:

No. 7: City - Kingston via Brooklyn Library (Mon-Sun)
No. 8: City - Kowhai Park via Brooklyn Library, off-peak only (Mon-Fri)
No.29: "Southern Shopper" Hospital - Kingston - Brooklyn - Happy Valley -Island Bay (Mon-Sat)

[edit] Malaysian High Commission

The Malaysian High Commission is located in Brooklyn, on the corner of Washington Avenue and Brooklyn Road.

[edit] Notable Residents of Brooklyn, Past and Present

John Fitchett arrived in Wellington in 1842 on the ship London and died in 1875. In 1899 his son A.B. Fitchett and R.B Todman decided to subdivide his land. A.B Fitchett imported the first milk separator in to New Zealand.
Ann Pacey is one of New Zealand's great jazz and theatre divas. Her reputation is as big in London and New York as it is at home. She has appeared in many television programmes and movies over the years, including Pioneer Woman, and more recently she was a leading lady in the stage presentation of Chicago (playing Mama Morton) which toured for several months throughout New Zealand.
John Henry Heaton arrived in New Zealand in 1856, aboard the Lord Ashley. Worked as a customs and shipping agent and was a member of the harbour board. He was elected Mayor of Melrose borough, which was incorporated in 1888.
Chris McLean has writtren histories and biographies, including Tararua: the story of a Mountain Range and John Pascoe.
Eirlys Hunter was born in London, 1952. She has written books for adults and children. Several of her books, including The Quake, Between black & white and the Finn's Quest series can be found at the Brooklyn Library.
Architect Ernst Plischke (1903-1992) was born in Vienna and emigrated to New Zealand with his Jewish wife in 1939, to escape Hitler's Nazism.
Jane Thomson (1858-1944), Mountaineer.
Shihad (once called Pacifier), originally from Wellington now in Melbourne, Australia, are the band leading the international Kiwi rock charge. Their albums are available at the library. Shihad are Jon Toogood (vocals and guitar), Tom Larkin (drums), Karl K (bass) and Phil Knight (guitar and keyboards).
William Sutch (1907-1975) was a teacher, economist, writer and diplomat.
Ray Ching was born in Brooklyn, Wellington in 1939. His paintings were first seen in Auckland in 1966, as an exhibition of thirty watercolours and gouaches of birds, his preferred subject matter at that time. These early paintings established his reputation in New Zealand and by 1972 Ching's work was recognised as being amongst the finest of its kind in the world.

[edit] Politics

[edit] Local Authority Elections

Brooklyn forms part of the Lambton Ward for the Local Authority Elections that elect members to the Wellington City Council; a small area at the southern end of Brooklyn is part of the Southern Ward. The ward system was approved by the council on 8th July 2006 for the 2007 Local Authority Elections. A number of other suburbs comprise Lambton Ward (all to the north of Brooklyn), as follows:

[edit] General Elections

For General Elections, Brooklyn forms part of Wellington Central and for Māori Electorate, Te Tai Tonga.

[edit] Future...

Brooklyn is expanding at the moment, with a new subdivision of Panorama Heights, behind Karepa Street and infill building on some larger sections.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Categories: Wellington urban districts

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