| Karangahape Road | |
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Karangahape Road from the intersection with Pitt Street. |
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| Length: | 1 km (1 mi) |
| Location: | Auckland CBD, Auckland, New Zealand |
Karangahape Road (commonly known as K' Road) is one of the main streets in the central business district (CBD) of Auckland, New Zealand. The massive expansion of motorways through the nearby inner city area - and subsequent flight of residents and retail into the suburbs - turned it from one of Auckland's premier shopping streets into a run-down red light district from the 1960s onwards. Now considered to be one of the cultural centres of Auckland, since the 1980s-1990s it has been undergoing a slow process of gentrification, and is now known for cafes and boutique shops.
It runs mostly west–east along a ridge at the southern edge of the Auckland CBD, perpendicular to Queen Street, the city's main street. At its intersection with Ponsonby Road in the west, Karangahape Road becomes Great North Road, at its eastern end it connects to Grafton Bridge.
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The name stems from the Māori language. The original meaning and origin of the word as a street name is uncertain, but there are many interpretations - ranging from "winding ridge of human activity" to "calling on Hape". Hape was the name of a Māori chief of some importance living over on the Manukau Harbour, thus the name possibly indicates the route that was taken to visit him.[1]
As it was a travel route used by the pre-European Māori, Karangahape Road is an older thoroughfare than Queen Street, which was only developed by Europeans in the 1840s. Māori sold the land for Karangahape Road and Pitt Street in 1841.[4] The Karangahape ridge was the formal southern edge of Auckland in the 19th century.[4]
From about 1900 to the early 1960s K' Road was Auckland's busiest shopping street with many clothing shops large and small along with several department stores. Most retail chain stores had branches here, often in preference to Queen Street. During the interwar period most of Auckland's main shops selling furniture, musical instruments, radios and household appliances were located here.[5] It had the first traffic lights in Auckland (and the first lights to have pedestrian phases), and the first fluorescent street lights.[4]
After 1965 K' Road lost most of its local customer base when construction of the inner-city motorway system resulted in over 50,000 people having to move out of the surrounding areas.[5] The downturn in trade led to many shops closing and the relocating of businesses to other areas of Auckland. This accelerated the decline, and by the early 1970s the low rents meant it had acquired a rather seedy reputation as Auckland's red-light district. Since the early 1990s there has been a move away from this image due to newly constructed apartment blocks attracting residents back to the area, as well as a general gentrification of close-by areas like Ponsonby. Nowadays only very few enterprises are connected with the adult industry.[5]
Alongside the few remaining shops and venues catering to the sex trade, K Road currently boasts an eclectic collection of shops, cafés and art galleries. At night its restaurants, bars and nightclubs make it a major part of Auckland's social scene. K Road has become a centre for much of Auckland's bohemian scene, with many venues for alternative music and fringe art as well as the LGBT community. It is also known for its trendy op shops.
The street received a major upgrade of its footpaths and street furniture which finished in 2006, at a cost of NZ$3.5 million.[6] As of 2009, approximately 400 businesses are on K Road.[5]
Popular guided heritage walks are conducted on Karangahape Road. Notable buildings and sites include:
K Road has gathered some appreciation as a film and audio visual precinct. It has six independent film-makers, three screening venues, two radio stations (K FM Radio and Boosh.FM) and New Zealand's only television arts channel. It was also the home of now defunct independent television station Alt TV.
The Moving Image Centre, also known as MIC Toi Rerehiko, is a multidisciplinary cultural institution exhibiting international and New Zealand artists, via "contemporary film, video, digital media, installation, music and live performance". Funded by business and public sponsorship, it has an art gallery at 321 Karangahape Road.[7]
The Auckland office and the reference library of the New Zealand Film Archive is located in 300 Karangahape Road, where the institute also has exhibition space.[8]
The song "Verona" by New Zealand rock band Elemeno P, from their album Love & Disrespect, refers to the cafe/restaurant/bar of the same name at 169 Karangahape Road. The current Verona building dates from 1923 and gets its name from the Victorian house that previously occupied the site, Mrs Bishop's "Verona" Boarding House.