Wadestown, New Zealand

The suburb of Wadestown is within the enrolment zones of Wellington High School, Wellington College, Wellington Girls' College, Onslow College and Wadestown School. The eastern parts of the suburb, including Highland Park, are within the enrolment zone of Thorndon School.

Wadestown Side School

Wadestown School is a state co-educational primary school for Year 1 to 8 children,[10] with a roll of 320 as of March 2020.[11] The school is situated on two sites about 1 km apart.[12]

The Weld Street campus (previously known as the Side School) is designed for new entrants, and consists of parallel junior classes (Year 1–2). The grounds include landscaped gardens, a playground with a slide and decks, a playing field and a small pool for swimming. The Deputy Principal has an office at both Rose Street and Weld Street, sharing time between the two locations.[12][11]

The Rose Street campus (previously known as the Main School) is located on multiple levels of a hilly site between Rose Street and Purakau Avenue, above Wadestown Road. It provides for children from Year 2 to Year 8. The access to the Rose Street campus is by footpath from Mairangi Road at the top of Rose Street, and only limited vehicular access is available. There is also pedestrian access from Wilton Road via Purakau Avenue. At the Rose Street campus there are four blocks of classrooms at different levels. Despite the hilly site, the Rose Street grounds include landscaped gardens, a playing field, a large flat playground and three tennis courts.[12][11]

The majority of Wadestown pupils come from the local suburb but a number also come from Wilton, Chartwell, Thorndon, Khandallah and Crofton Downs.[11] The school has an enrolment zone scheme in place.[10]

Wadestown School was first opened on the Weld Street site on 1 June 1881, and was one of the earliest schools in Wellington. It was initially built as a single classroom schoolhouse, but by 1896 it had been extended twice. The original Side School building was demolished after the Second World War and rebuilt in the current layout, being officially opened on 15 June 1946. The Rose Street campus began as two classrooms on the present Rose Street site, opening in February 1917. There have been a number of renovations and building developments that have occurred on the site since.[12]

A detailed history of the school was published in 2006 in preparation for the 125th Anniversary in November 2006.[13]

Pre-school education in Wadestown is provided by Wadestown Kindergarten, a part of Wellington's Free Kindergarten Association. The Wadestown Playgroup provides play activities for children under 5 at the Wadestown Playground and Plunket rooms.

A private funicular

The funicular's terminus

There is no railway station in Wadestown. The Johnsonville line runs along the lower slopes of Wadestown, above the Ngaio Gorge. It was originally built by the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company in the mid-1880s, as part of the proposed line from Wellington to Palmerston North. This line was the route of the North Island Main Trunk railway out of Wellington until 1938, when it became the Johnsonville branch line after completion of the Tawa Flat Deviation.[2] There are no train stations in Wadestown itself, although there is a Wadestown crossing loop on the line. The nearest station is Crofton Downs. The steep hillsides in Wadestown occasionally cause difficulties for the commuter train service deep in the valley.[18]

Highland Park run belonged to W B Rhodes, "the richest man in New Zealand". It was the site of The Grange, his run's homestead overlooking the harbour. Highland Park had been bought by Rhodes before 1849 and was part of the original James Watt and John Wade holding.[23] Controlled subdivision in the 20th century after his widow died in 1914 resulted in much more generous houses of much better quality.

Rhodes family members are commemorated in Highland Park's street names: Barnard Street (W Barnard Rhodes known as Barnard), Anne Street (first recorded as Ann, unknown, perhaps for his daughter Mary Ann), Sar Street (Sarah Ann Rhodes née Moorhouse (second wife)), Sefton Street and Moorhouse Street for her brother

Older than any of them Watt Street is named for original owner James Watt and a match for Wade Street running at right angles from its southern end, the surveyors unaware of the lie of the land.[24] The Lennel Road cutting with Watt Street bridge was made for the tramway at the beginning of the 20th century and after much illicit use by animals, pedestrians and some vehicles expanded to roadway when the tram service finished in 1949.[25]

The plan to subdivide beyond the grounds of Mrs Rhodes' house was announced in 1901[26] but an act of parliament to permit the sale and disputes with the Onslow Borough Council delayed even the first sales until 1912.[27][28]

The eastern gun pit at Fort Buckley

The fort overlooks Wellington harbour from the top of a steep hill in Barnard Street, above Kaiwharawhara. It was built in 1885 in response to concerns that Russia was gearing up to expand its empire in the South Pacific, and was the first fort capable of defending Wellington's port from a naval attack. It is of national historical importance because the battery is one of the least altered examples of the first defences constructed in the late nineteenth-century in preparation for an expected Russian naval invasion. Fort Buckley is part of a wider network of coastal defences erected around that time, and its construction reflects New Zealand's increasing independence from Britain on military matters during that period.

Heritage New Zealand gave the fort a Category 1 historic place listing in 2004. It is now a recreation reserve managed by the Highland Park Progressive Association (HPPA) in partnership with the Wellington City Council (WCC).[29][30]

Salisbury Garden Court is a group of 16 houses clustered in matching pairs around a tennis court between 131 and 133 Cecil Road near the top of Te Ahumairangi Hill in Wadestown. Special aspects of the area are the central court, the bush reserve around the group of houses, and the very steep, pedestrian-only access. Built in 1929–30, the houses show the influence of ‘Garden City’ design ideas. Wellington City Council has designated Salisbury Garden Court a Heritage Area.[31]

During the Great Depression and War years, the earliest tenants made full use of the tennis court as a central activity area. In the 1950s, the Court briefly became a miniature ‘Polish village’, as at one point 13 of the 16 houses were occupied by Poles, many of whom had arrived in New Zealand in 1944 as child refugees. By the 1970s, a ‘hippy commune’ was flourishing at the Court. A documentary film ‘A Place to Stay’, was made by Marie Russell in 2009 about the unique design and unusual social history of Salisbury Garden Court. The film explores the interaction of urban design and community.[32]

Built on the one title as an investment by neighbour and builder Herbert Stanley Pillar at what proved to be the very beginning of the Great Depression it turned out to be difficult for Pillar to attract tenants even when furniture was provided. Each separate bungalow contained "a large sitting room, 2 bedrooms, kitchenette, bathroom etc, electric light, gas cooker, caliphont, blinds provided" . . . "similar to the bungalow courts so popular in America. Separate homes with all the convenience of flats."[33] The pressures of the inner-city housing refurbishment boom of the 1970s eventually brought legitimate subdivision of their one site and the ability to deal in and finance individual buildings.

4 Goldies Brae. Until 1907 in Onslow Borough

Another historic place in Wadestown (although now strictly located just inside the Thorndon boundary), is the house at 4 Goldies Brae built for original settler Dr Alexander Johnston and designed by him. It is popularly known as the banana house because of its crescent-shaped layout. The house was constructed in 1876. Reports on the sale of the property in 2020 claimed that the unique design is based on Gatcombe Park, a British stately home that is the country residence of Princess Anne.[34]

It is unusual because of the continuous glazed gallery (or conservatory) that provides enclosed access to each of the ten rooms. This gallery provides solar heat to the rest of the house. The house has a Category 1 listing from the Heritage New Zealand.[35] Silston Cory-Wright lived in this house from 1928 until his death in 1976.[36]

Goldie's Brae estate with 5 acres of grounds included the area now crossed by Grosvenor Terrace — and some of Orchard Street — all beyond Queen's Park at the north end of Grant Road. Its land north of the street of the same name was subdivided at the same time as adjoining Highland Park and its subdivision suffered the same decade of Onslow Borough Council obstructions.

Until April 1907 Wadeston was administered (as its most populous part) within the Borough of Onslow. The boundary placed Goldies Brae in Onslow which extended right through to modern Ngaio and Khandallah. Modern Northland was administered separately. The difficulties of building for early-established Wadestown houses adequate drainage within Onslow's boundaries, the subdivision of the Highland Park estate and the appeal to the residents of this very steep area of joining Wellington's tramway system led to amalgamation in April 1907.[37]