Brooklyn, New Zealand
Encyclopedia
Brooklyn, a suburb of Wellington
, the capital city of New Zealand. Brooklyn is a blend of circa 1900 weatherboard villa / bungalow houses around the central part of Brooklyn, blending more recent subdivisions built in the 1970's and 1990's. The shops / bars / cinema / food outlets have created a village atmosphere. The inner city suburb is popular with families and renters for its proximity to the Wellington CBD (10 minutes drive) and access to Wellingtons south coast (an easy 10 minutes i the other direction).
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:
land, the park features a set of wrought-iron gates at its main entrance: the then Mayor
, John Pearce Luke gifted them in 1920.
During World War II, American forces established a military camp in the park between 1942 and 1944. 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 the improving military situation precluded the expansion.
In 1991 the Wellington City Council set aside some of the park as trial to help low-income families and community-organisations to grow their own vegetables. The gardens, including 33 plots, have become known as the Tanera Community Gardens; the Mokai Kainga Trust manages them.
, set aside large areas of open land 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 (4.3 km²). The Wellington City Council continues to hold and manage the amenity.
However, the New Zealand Company did not just have public health in mind. 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 owners of the "town acres"). The Company may have also intended to set the social classes apart by dividing the town with planted areas, so that 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.
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 viewscapes of Wellingtonians. The turbine, visible from many parts of the city, stands 299 meters above sea level. It became the oldest operating wind-turbine in New Zealand
Brooklyn has adopted the turbine as a local icon. When the City council re-sealed the foot-paths in central Brooklyn some years after the installation of the turbine, someone implanted ceramic tiles depicting the wind turbine into the foot-paths.
By standards, and compared with other turbines installed in New Zealand, for example those at Te Āpiti Wind Farm
, the Brooklyn turbine classes as a relatively small machine:
Microprocessors monitor and control the turbine and stop the blades when wind speeds get too high and then re-start them when more favourable conditions return. The power generated – enough for 60 to 80 homes - goes into the local network for general distribution.
Meridian Energy
has managed the turbine since its formation as a company in 1999 with the deregulation of the New Zealand electricity market
.
Soon after the war ended in 1918 a movement to build a memorial began, with the funds 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. Colonel George Mitchell
D.S.O.
M.P.
unveiled the memorial 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 a nine-month restoration took place, which involved re-securing the structure to the concrete pads that it stands on as well as cleaning, restoring plasterwork, removal of rust and replacing parts that had gone missing.
The inscription on the pedestal reads:
The motherland called and they went and these men died for their country.
The names of the soldiers read as follows:
air-raids or invasion. Once completed the battery had accommodation for 109 army personnel.
The battery stands slightly north of the wind turbine within Panorama Heights subdivision, on a site allocated as reserve land. The site backs on to the firebreak running around the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary
.
. It dates from 1858, and hosts The Colonial Cottage Museum
. Brooklyn itself contains examples of many building styles including:
The Simple Villa, a style of home built from around 1895, often appears in the form of structures larger than the cottages and Victorian style properties built prior to this time. They generally consisted of a hallway with two rooms off each side and an indoor bathroom at the end. Often a "lean-to
" attached to the back of the house would allow for a storage area that might include a wash-house. With the design of the property having the chimney within the house (as opposed to attached to an exterior side wall) fireplaces in the sitting room and kitchen could both use the same chimney — a configuration known as "back-to-back". Brooklynites built these homes from timber — with most of the period features (including architrave
s, skirting-boards, doors and windows) purchasable as standard items from timber merchants.
".
Brooklyn and the wider Wellington region then and hosted a number of iwi
, or tribe
s, all represented through a Charter of Understanding with Wellington Regional Council signed in July 2000:
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 from Gravesend
in Kent. 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 for sale. The offer included 208 lots of Fitchett’s Farm next to Brooklyn.
In 1899, after the sale, a further subdivision took place, and the main roads of Mitchell and Todman Streets took form. 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 populus, Wellingtonians proposed a tramway. As the existing route to Brooklyn via Aro Street and Ohiro Road had excessively steep gradients, 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 recalls the Dutch city Breukelen
. When 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) subdivided Brooklyn, it named a number of its streets after former US Presidents:
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 had an age of under 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.
style, it opened on 15 June 1939 as the Vogue Theatre
. The Ranish family ran the cinema until 1951, when the Vogue Company Limited took over. The Vogue Company turned the cinema into a television studio where TV commercials were shot. The building was renamed the Penthouse Cinema when it was bought by Merv and Carol Kisby in 1975. Since then additional screens have been added, as well as refurbishment of the interior in keeping with its original style.
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 the then Parish Priest Father Paul Kane procured land at the site on Taft Street. The parish re-located the church and had a new school built. However, in 1961 the parish and the school changed their name: the Priest who enacted this bore the name "Bernard". The Sisters of Mercy continued to run the school until 1973 when Doreen Barry became the first lay Principal.
, St Bernard’s School Brooklyn is known as an urban Catholic primary school close to the shops, buses and only five minutes from the city centre. The current Principal is Linda Hughes.
s, most of Brooklyn forms part of Wellington Central
and for Māori Electorate, Te Tai Tonga.
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
, the capital city of New Zealand. Brooklyn is a blend of circa 1900 weatherboard villa / bungalow houses around the central part of Brooklyn, blending more recent subdivisions built in the 1970's and 1990's. The shops / bars / cinema / food outlets have created a village atmosphere. The inner city suburb is popular with families and renters for its proximity to the Wellington CBD (10 minutes drive) and access to Wellingtons south coast (an easy 10 minutes i the other direction).
Location
Brooklyn stands 3 km south of Wellington’s central business districtCentral business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...
on the eastern slopes of the hills above Happy Valley
Happy Valley, Wellington
Happy Valley is a southern suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. It is a main thoroughfare between Wellington city and Wellington's somewhat rugged and scenic southern coast....
. (The hills and the valley both extend south towards Owhiro Bay
Owhiro Bay
Ōwhiro Bay is a southern suburb of Wellington, New Zealand, that overlooks the Cook Strait. It is situated west of the larger suburb of Island Bay.-Education:...
on Cook Strait
Cook Strait
Cook Strait is the strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. It connects the Tasman Sea on the west with the South Pacific Ocean on the east....
.)
Nearby suburbs and areas include:
- To the north:
- Aro ValleyAro Valley- Geography :The Aro Valley runs between the hills of Brooklyn to the south and of Kelburn to the north. By some reckonings it includes the side-valley of Mitchelltown. It takes its name from the Aro stream which flowed down Epuni street, and which since 1926 has been confined to a drain...
and Highbury
- Aro Valley
- To the east:
- Mount CookMount Cook, WellingtonThe suburb of Mount Cook in Wellington in New Zealand stands on the southern fringe of the central city alongside Te Aro and to the north of Newtown...
- Mount Cook
- To the south:
- Vogeltown and MorningtonMornington, WellingtonMornington is a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand, on the southern hills behind Brooklyn. It is named after the Duke of Wellington's father, the Earl of Mornington. The original Mornington is in County Meath, and was the Irish seat of the Duke's father. It was named in 1878 from the time when J.F.E...
- Vogeltown and Mornington
- To the west:
- Kowhai Park, Panorama Heights, Mitchelltown, KaroriKaroriKarori is a suburb located at the western edge of the urban area of Wellington, New Zealand, some 4 km from the city centre.Karori is significantly larger than most other Wellington suburbs, having a population of over 14,000 at the time of the 2006 census.-History:Before the arrival of...
- Kowhai Park, Panorama Heights, Mitchelltown, Karori
Central Park
Central Park (named after the area of the same name in New York) separates Brooklyn from the city. Established in 1913 on Town BeltTown Belt
The Town Belt is a green belt which surrounds the centre of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. Covering a total of over , it extends around three sides of the city's centre at a distance from it of some 1-3 km in a broad crescent from the Oval at Kensington in the south through the suburbs of...
land, the park features a set of wrought-iron gates at its main entrance: the then Mayor
Mayor of Wellington
The Mayor of Wellington is the head of the municipal government of Wellington, New Zealand, and presides over the Wellington City Council. The Mayor of Wellington administers only Wellington City itself — other municipalities in adjacent areas of the Wellington Region such as Lower Hutt, Upper...
, John Pearce Luke gifted them in 1920.
During World War II, American forces established a military camp in the park between 1942 and 1944. 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 the improving military situation precluded the expansion.
Tanera Park
Tanera Park lies to the north and north-west of Central Park on the opposite side of Ohiro Road. The park has sports facilities, including soccer, cricket, and artificial surfaces as well as changing-rooms.In 1991 the Wellington City Council set aside some of the park as trial to help low-income families and community-organisations to grow their own vegetables. The gardens, including 33 plots, have become known as the Tanera Community Gardens; the Mokai Kainga Trust manages them.
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. The park was donated by Mr Elliot who used to have his farm in this place. There are still also wild Pigs and goats that live on the bottom of the hills.Town Belt
The first plan of Wellington, drawn in 1840 by the New Zealand CompanyNew Zealand Company
The New Zealand Company originated in London in 1837 as the New Zealand Association with the aim of promoting the "systematic" colonisation of New Zealand. The association, and later the company, intended to follow the colonising principles of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who envisaged the creation of...
, set aside large areas of open land for public use as the Town Belt
Town Belt
The Town Belt is a green belt which surrounds the centre of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. Covering a total of over , it extends around three sides of the city's centre at a distance from it of some 1-3 km in a broad crescent from the Oval at Kensington in the south through the suburbs of...
. 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 (4.3 km²). The Wellington City Council continues to hold and manage the amenity.
However, the New Zealand Company did not just have public health in mind. 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 owners of the "town acres"). The Company may have also intended to set the social classes apart by dividing the town with planted areas, so that 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.
Wind-turbine
Electricity Corporation of New Zealand
The Electricity Corporation of New Zealand Ltd is a New Zealand state-owned enterprise formed on 1 April 1987, as a transition entity in the process of deregulating the New Zealand electricity market...
installed the Brooklyn wind-turbine
Wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...
on Pol Hill above north-western Brooklyn in March 1993 as part of a research project into wind-power
Wind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
generation. The Corporation chose the Brooklyn site due to Wellington's "higher than normal" wind patterns and to gain maximum exposure in the viewscapes of Wellingtonians. The turbine, visible from many parts of the city, stands 299 meters above sea level. It became the oldest operating wind-turbine in New Zealand
Brooklyn has adopted the turbine as a local icon. When the City council re-sealed the foot-paths in central Brooklyn some years after the installation of the turbine, someone implanted ceramic tiles depicting the wind turbine into the foot-paths.
By standards, and compared with other turbines installed in New Zealand, for example those at Te Āpiti Wind Farm
Te Apiti wind farm
Te Āpiti is a wind farm owned and operated by Meridian Energy. It is located on 11.5 km² of land north of the Manawatu Gorge in the North Island of New Zealand...
, the Brooklyn turbine classes as 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
Microprocessors monitor and control the turbine and stop the blades when wind speeds get too high and then re-start them when more favourable conditions return. The power generated – enough for 60 to 80 homes - goes into the local network for general distribution.
Meridian Energy
Meridian Energy
Meridian Energy Limited is a New Zealand state-owned electricity generator and retailer. The company generates the largest proportion of New Zealand's electricity, generating 32 percent of the country's electricity in the year ending 31 December 2009, and is the fourth-equal largest retailer, with...
has managed the turbine since its formation as a company in 1999 with the deregulation of the New Zealand electricity market
New Zealand Electricity Market
New Zealand's electricity market is regulated by the Electricity Industry Participation Code administered by the Electricity Authority . The Authority was established in November 2010 to replace the Electricity Commission and its publication explains how the market works.- Overview :Until 1987,...
.
War memorial
Brooklyn's World War I war memorial overlooks northern Brooklyn from the top of Sugarloaf Hill. It lists the names of the 48 Brooklyn soldiers who died in that war.Soon after the war ended in 1918 a movement to build a memorial began, with the funds 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. Colonel George Mitchell
George Mitchell (New Zealand)
Lieutenant Colonel George Mitchell DSO was an Independent Member of Parliament for Wellington South in New Zealand.-Member of Parliament:George Mitchell represented the Wellington South electorate in the House of Representatives from 1919 to 1922....
D.S.O.
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
M.P.
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
unveiled the memorial 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 a nine-month restoration took place, which involved re-securing the structure to the concrete pads that it stands on as well as cleaning, restoring plasterwork, removal of rust and replacing parts that had gone missing.
The inscription on the pedestal reads:
The motherland called and they went and these men died for their country.
The names of the soldiers read 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 |
Pol Hill gun emplacements
The well-preserved Pol Hill anti-aircraft gun emplacements date from March 1942: built for the capital's defence in response to fears of JapaneseEmpire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
air-raids or invasion. Once completed the battery had accommodation for 109 army personnel.
The battery stands slightly north of the wind turbine within Panorama Heights subdivision, on a site allocated as reserve land. The site backs on to the firebreak running around the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary
Karori Wildlife Sanctuary
Zealandia, formerly known as the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, is a protected natural area in Wellington, New Zealand, where the biodiversity of 225 ha of forest is being restored...
.
Architectural styles
Brooklyn features 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 CookMount Cook, Wellington
The suburb of Mount Cook in Wellington in New Zealand stands on the southern fringe of the central city alongside Te Aro and to the north of Newtown...
. It dates from 1858, and hosts The Colonial Cottage Museum
The Colonial Cottage Museum
The Colonial Cottage Museum is Wellington's oldest building and is classified as a "Category I" historic place by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust....
. 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
Villa (Simple villas)
The Simple Villa, a style of home built from around 1895, often appears in the form of structures larger than the cottages and Victorian style properties built prior to this time. They generally consisted of a hallway with two rooms off each side and an indoor bathroom at the end. Often a "lean-to
Lean-to
A lean-to is a term used to describe a roof with a single slope. The term also applies to a variety of structures that are built using a lean-to roof....
" attached to the back of the house would allow for a storage area that might include a wash-house. With the design of the property having the chimney within the house (as opposed to attached to an exterior side wall) fireplaces in the sitting room and kitchen could both use the same chimney — a configuration known as "back-to-back". Brooklynites built these homes from timber — with most of the period features (including architrave
Architrave
An architrave is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of the columns. It is an architectural element in Classical architecture.-Classical architecture:...
s, skirting-boards, doors and windows) purchasable as standard items from timber merchants.
Buildings of special interest
- The Sutch House, designed by Ernst PlischkeErnst PlischkeErnst Anton Plischke was an Austrian-New Zealand modernist architect, town planner and furniture designer whose work is well known throughout Europe and New Zealand.-Early years:...
and built between 1953 and 1956, stands on Todman Street). The house shows influences of the Austrian Neues Bauen (New Construction) movement to which Plischke had belonged in the 1930s. Wellington architect Alistair Luke restored the Sutch House during 2003. It later received the New from the one that was owned and lived in by Ernst Plischke. In its day it ranked as one of New Zealand's most radical house designs. It remains one of the country’s most iconic residences with its modernist design and has won a New Zealand Institute of ArchitectsNew Zealand Institute of ArchitectsThe New Zealand Institute of Architects is a membership based professional organisation. This body represents 90% of all registered architects in New Zealand and promotes architecture that enhances the New Zealand living environment....
Resene Award for Enduring Architecture.
- Tower Studio (located on Karepa Street), a purpose-built five-level TuscanTuscan orderAmong canon of classical orders of classical architecture, the Tuscan order's place is due to the influence of the Italian Sebastiano Serlio, who meticulously described the five orders including a "Tuscan order", "the solidest and least ornate", in his fourth book of Regole generalii di...
tower, takes its inspiration from the towers of San GimignanoSan GimignanoSan Gimignano is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, north-central Italy. It is mainly famous for its medieval architecture, especially its towers, which may be seen from several kilometres outside the town....
in Tuscany. It overlooks the native bush reserve in Brooklyn with an open belvedereBelvedere (structure)Belvedere is an architectural term adopted from Italian , which refers to any architectural structure sited to take advantage of such a view. A belvedere may be built in the upper part of a building so as to command a fine view...
offering 360° views.
Pre-European
In pre-European times, Māori knew the Brooklyn hills as Turanga-rere, translated as "the waving plumes of a war-party". One interpretation suggests this may refer to "all trees on the hills waving in the wind like hair adornments on warriors dancing the hakaHaka
Haka is a traditional ancestral war cry, dance or challenge from the Māori people of New Zealand. It is a posture dance performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment...
".
Brooklyn and the wider Wellington region then and hosted a number of iwi
Iwi
In New Zealand society, iwi form the largest everyday social units in Māori culture. The word iwi means "'peoples' or 'nations'. In "the work of European writers which treat iwi and hapū as parts of a hierarchical structure", it has been used to mean "tribe" , or confederation of tribes,...
, or tribe
Tribe
A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...
s, all represented through a Charter of Understanding with Wellington Regional Council signed in July 2000:
- Te Āti AwaTe Ati AwaTe Āti Awa is a Māori iwi with traditional bases in the Taranaki and Wellington regions of New Zealand. Approximately 17,000 people registered their affiliation to Te Āti Awa in 2001, with around 10,000 in Taranaki, 2,000 in Wellington and around 5,000 of unspecified regional location.-Geographical...
- MuaupokoMuaupoko-External links:* in Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand...
- Rangitāne o Wairarapa
- Ngāti RaukawaNgati RaukawaNgāti Raukawa is a Māori iwi with traditional bases in the Waikato, Taupo and Manawatū/Horowhenua regions of New Zealand. In 2006, 29,418 Māori registered their affiliation with Ngāti Raukawa.- Early History :...
- Ngāti ToaNgati ToaNgāti Toa , an iwi , traces its descent from the eponymous ancestor Toarangatira. The Ngāti Toa region extends from Miria-te-kakara at Rangitikei to Wellington, and across Cook Strait to Wairau and Nelson....
(Ngāti Toarangatira) - Te Atiawa ki Whakarongotai
European settlement
EuropeanEuropean ethnic groups
The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
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 from Gravesend
Gravesend, Kent
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of...
in Kent. 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
Wellington Harbour
Wellington Harbour is the large natural harbour at the southern tip of New Zealand's North Island. New Zealand's capital, Wellington, is on the western side of Wellington Harbour. The harbour was officially named Port Nicholson until it assumed its current name in the 1980s.In Māori the harbour is...
in 1980). Settlers could access the new district only via the steep Ohiro Road from present-day Aro Street
Aro Valley
- Geography :The Aro Valley runs between the hills of Brooklyn to the south and of Kelburn to the north. By some reckonings it includes the side-valley of Mitchelltown. It takes its name from the Aro stream which flowed down Epuni street, and which since 1926 has been confined to a drain...
. 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 for sale. The offer included 208 lots of Fitchett’s Farm next to Brooklyn.
In 1899, after the sale, a further subdivision took place, and the main roads of Mitchell and Todman Streets took form. 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 populus, Wellingtonians proposed a tramway. As the existing route to Brooklyn via Aro Street and Ohiro Road had excessively steep gradients, 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 recalls the Dutch city Breukelen
Breukelen
Breukelen is a town and former municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. It is situated to the north west of Utrecht, along the river Vecht and close to the lakes of the Loosdrechtse Plassen, an area of natural and touristic interest...
. When a syndicate led by J.F.E. Wright (a Wellington Provincial Councillor between 1861 and 1863, and then for Karori
Karori
Karori is a suburb located at the western edge of the urban area of Wellington, New Zealand, some 4 km from the city centre.Karori is significantly larger than most other Wellington suburbs, having a population of over 14,000 at the time of the 2006 census.-History:Before the arrival of...
and Makara between 1873 and 1876) subdivided Brooklyn, it named a number of its streets after former US Presidents:
- Grover ClevelandGrover ClevelandStephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
(in office: 1885-1889 and 1893–1897) - Cleveland Street - Calvin CoolidgeCalvin CoolidgeJohn Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
(in office: 1923-1929) - Coolidge Street - James GarfieldJames GarfieldJames Abram Garfield served as the 20th President of the United States, after completing nine consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Garfield's accomplishments as President included a controversial resurgence of Presidential authority above Senatorial courtesy in executive...
- Garfield Street - William Henry HarrisonWilliam Henry HarrisonWilliam Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the United States , an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office. He was 68 years, 23 days old when elected, the oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, and last President to be born before the...
- Harrison Street - Herbert HooverHerbert HooverHerbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
(in office: 1929-1933) - Hoover Street - Thomas JeffersonThomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
- Jefferson Street - Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
- Lincoln Street - William McKinleyWilliam McKinleyWilliam McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
- McKinley Crescent - William Taft - Taft Street
- George WashingtonGeorge WashingtonGeorge Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
- Washington Avenue
Demographics
Population: The 2006 Census of Population and Dwellings counted 3,855 people defined as “usually resident population”.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 had an age of under 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
European ethnic groups
The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
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.
Cinema
Brooklyn hosts the Penthouse Cinema, located on Ohiro Road just south of Cleveland Street. Constructed for the Ranish family in the art decoArt Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
style, it opened on 15 June 1939 as the Vogue Theatre
Vogue Theatre
Located in the heart of downtown Vancouver on 918 Granville Street, the Vogue Theatre has been one of the defining architectural achievements in Vancouver since its opening in 1941...
. The Ranish family ran the cinema until 1951, when the Vogue Company Limited took over. The Vogue Company turned the cinema into a television studio where TV commercials were shot. The building was renamed the Penthouse Cinema when it was bought by Merv and Carol Kisby in 1975. Since then additional screens have been added, as well as refurbishment of the interior in keeping with its original style.
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.
Take-aways
- 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; also sells fresh fish.
- Khana Khazana, Cleveland Street, Indian tandoori cuisine.
- Brooklyn Bites, Cleveland Street, Fresh lunch takeaway.
Library
Brooklyn has a branch library, opened on 16 February 1905 at 22 Harrison Street as the second branch library of the main Central Library. It opened with 350 books and for 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 and ramp access provided in Cleveland Street, enabling pushchairs to enter easily. The original building is now the Brooklyn Playcentre.Schools
Brooklyn has two schools:- Brooklyn School
- St Bernard’s School
Brooklyn School
Brooklyn School, a co-ed state primary school 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 390-450 children on the roll each year. The current Principal is Liz Rhodes.St Bernard's School
St Bernard's School, a co-ed Catholic school, occupies 40 Taft Street, a private cul-de-sac. The school started in 1935 when the Sisters of Mercy provided two sisters, Boniface and Fabian. It opened on 5 February of that year as St Anthony's School Brooklyn, in the church on Jefferson Street - the church itself opened in June 1911. At the time the school opened 44 Catholic children attended the local state school, 43 of whom 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 the then Parish Priest Father Paul Kane procured land at the site on Taft Street. The parish re-located the church and had a new school built. However, in 1961 the parish and the school changed their name: the Priest who enacted this bore the name "Bernard". The Sisters of Mercy continued to run the school until 1973 when Doreen Barry became the first lay Principal.
, St Bernard’s School Brooklyn is known as an urban Catholic primary school close to the shops, buses and only five minutes from the city centre. The current Principal is Linda Hughes.
Churches
- St Bernard's Church (Catholic), Taft Street
- Brooklyn Anglican Church
- St Matthew's Joint Parish, 96 Washington Avenue. St Matthew's combined Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian groups in the 1970s.
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)
Malaysian High Commission
The Malaysian High Commission occupies the corner of Washington Avenue and Brooklyn Road. It is the world's southernmost High Commission.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, one of New Zealand's jazz and theatre divas, appeared in many television programmes and movies including Pioneer Woman, and more recently she was a leading lady in the stage presentation of Chicago (playing Mama Morton) which toured 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 written histories and biographies, including Tararua: the story of a Mountain Range and John Pascoe.
- Eirlys Hunter, born in London in 1952, 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 PlischkeErnst PlischkeErnst Anton Plischke was an Austrian-New Zealand modernist architect, town planner and furniture designer whose work is well known throughout Europe and New Zealand.-Early years:...
(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. The second woman to traverse Mount Cook, in 1916.
- ShihadShihadShihad is a New Zealand hard/alternative rock band, currently based in Melbourne, Australia. During Shihad's recording career, they have produced four number-one studio albums and three top-ten singles in their home country of New Zealand....
(once called Pacifier), originally from Wellington now in Melbourne, Australia. 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.
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 Council approved its ward system for the 2007 Local Authority Elections on 8 July 2006 . A number of other suburbs comprise Lambton Ward (all to the north of Brooklyn), as follows:- Aro ValleyAro Valley- Geography :The Aro Valley runs between the hills of Brooklyn to the south and of Kelburn to the north. By some reckonings it includes the side-valley of Mitchelltown. It takes its name from the Aro stream which flowed down Epuni street, and which since 1926 has been confined to a drain...
- Highbury
- KelburnKelburn, New Zealandthumb|300px|Panorama of Wellington including the Kelburn cable car.Kelburn is an inner suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. It is located on the hills to the west of the Central Business District.-Features of Kelburn:...
- Mount CookMount Cook, WellingtonThe suburb of Mount Cook in Wellington in New Zealand stands on the southern fringe of the central city alongside Te Aro and to the north of Newtown...
- Mount VictoriaMount Victoria, WellingtonMount Victoria, locally abbreviated to Mt. Vic, is a prominent hill to the east of the centre of Wellington, New Zealand, and its associated suburb. To the south of it is a spur, Mount Albert, and the two are linked by a ridge....
- Oriental BayOriental BayOriental Bay is a suburb of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Located close to the CBD on Wellington Harbour, it has the closest beach to the centre of the city and is thus a popular spot both for living and for visiting....
- Pipitea
- Te AroTe AroTe Aro is an inner-city suburb of Wellington, New Zealand, 1 km from the centre. It comprises the southern part of the central business district including the majority of the city's entertainment district and covers the mostly flat area of city between The Terrace and Cambridge Terrace at the base...
- ThorndonThorndonThorndon is an inner suburb of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. It combines residential accommodation and the home of government, and is located at the northern end of the Central Business District...
- Wadestown
- Wellington CentralWellington CentralrightWellington Central is a suburb of New Zealand's capital, Wellington, consisting of the flat, mostly reclaimed land, west of Lambton Harbour and the part of The Terrace immediately above it. It is bounded on the north by the suburb Pipitea and extends as far south as Civic Square...
General Elections
For General ElectionGeneral election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
s, most of Brooklyn forms part of Wellington Central
Wellington Central
rightWellington Central is a suburb of New Zealand's capital, Wellington, consisting of the flat, mostly reclaimed land, west of Lambton Harbour and the part of The Terrace immediately above it. It is bounded on the north by the suburb Pipitea and extends as far south as Civic Square...
and for Māori Electorate, Te Tai Tonga.
Future...
Brooklyn to expand, with a new subdivision, Panorama Heights (behind Karepa Street), and infill building on some larger sections.External links
- Map showing boundaries of Brooklyn suburb
- Brooklyn Community Centre, including links to local groups
- Brooklyn Wind Turbine
- Wellington City Libraries
- Wellington Trams History