Princes Street, Dunedin
Encyclopedia
Princes Street is a major street in Dunedin
, the second largest city in the South Island
of New Zealand
. It runs south-southwest for two kilometres from The Octagon
in the city centre to the Oval sports ground, close to the city's Southern Cemetery
. North of The Octagon, George Street continues the line of Princes Street north-northeast for two and a half kilometres. Princes Street is straight and undulates as it skirts the edge of the City Rise
to its northwest. The part of the street immediately below The Octagon is the steepest section, as the road traverses an old cutting through Bell Hill.
Princes Street was developed during Dunedin's 1860s boom from the Central Otago gold rush
, and consequently is one of New Zealand's most historic streets, with about 70 buildings in close proximity listed on the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Register. Originally the site of the city's wharf, a substantial area of land to the east of the street was formerly part of Otago Harbour
, much of it reclaimed via rock removed during the lowering of Bell Hill which separated Princes Street from northern Dunedin in the early years of settlement. In the years following the gold rush, Princes Street was the heart of Dunedin's central business district, but much of the city's main retail area has now shifted north to George Street.
, a small river that runs through Dunedin. As the city grew the swamp was drained to become the new city's centre, and the hill was lowered by excavation to allow access between the two areas of settlement. A street grid was set up with the main road split in two by the city centre (now The Octagon
) - Princes Street to the south and George Street to the north. As with many of the city's other place names, both these names and that of the Water of Leith reflect the names of places in Edinburgh.
In the settlement's early days, Bell Hill proved a major obstacle to travel south of the city centre, and major excavation work was carried out to provide access to the south. A cutting was made in the hill in 1858, and during the 1860s the hill was lowered by some 14 metres (45.9 ft). The cutting allowed for the passage of transport between the two parts of the town. The southern flank of the hill was also completely removed (that area now being occupied by Queen's Gardens). The stone removed from the hill was used as construction material for many of the city's first permanent buildings, and also as fill to reclaim the northern end of the Southern Endowment along the edge of the harbour. This reclamation work added a considerable area to the central city; the original docks, close to the Exchange area of Princes Street, are now several hundred metres inland.
The area of Princes Street between the Exchange and Market Reserve was a frequent source of dispute in the early years of European settlement. This area, at that time on the foreshore of Otago Harbour
was a traditional landing site for Māori waka
. Captain Cargill
, the founder of the new city, wished to follow the British practice of keeping the foreshore as public land. As the town spread, the area around the landing site became populated by settlers, and visiting Maori relied on the coastal strip as a place to set up their encampments. The southern Commissioner for Crown Lands, Walter Mantell
noted the problem and proposed to his superiors in Wellington that a site be found at which the Māori could erect permanent structures, naming the Princes Street foreshore as the preferred site. Mantell and Cargill, who had been bitter political opponents for the control of the early settlement, quickly found themselves at loggerheads over the proposal, and disputes over the ownership and allocation of the land dragged on for over two decades, finally being settled in the courts in 1877.
In the years following the Central Otago Gold Rush
of the 1860s Dunedin grew rapidly, with much of the growth being centred on Princes Street. In the city's early years this road was notorious for its unformed rough nature, a consequence of the work on Bell Hill, and led to Dunedin's early nickname of "Mud-edin". The prosperity brought by the gold rush led to a boom in construction, and within a handful of years, the area around lower Princes Street became the most prosperous in the country. Many of the prominent grand buildings of this part of Dunedin date from this period, and numerous structures in the area have New Zealand Historic Places Trust
classification as a result.
There is a considerable photographic record of early Princes Street, largely thanks to the presence in the street of the studios of the Burton Brothers
, pioneering New Zealand photographers. Many of their images, and those of other early Dunedin photographers, were collated and published in a series of books by photographic historian Hardwicke Knight
, one of which — a collection of photographic works by Daniel Louis Mundy — was entitled Princes Street by gaslight (1977).
Several notable companies have either been founded or had their headquarters in Princes Street. Notable among these were The Drapery and General Importing Company of New Zealand, later simply known as The D.I.C.
, Hallenstein's, and H.E. Shacklock. The first New Zealand headquarters of Briscoes were also located on Princes Street.
From the Octagon, Princes Street initially rises as it passes through a commercial district formerly commonly known as the Top 100, crossing the outer Octagon of Moray Place
before descending through the original cutting of Bell Hill towards the Exchange. The Top 100 theoretically takes its name from the 100 retail businesses which line Princes Street from the Octagon to the Exchange, although the actual number of businesses is not one hundred. This part of the city is sometimes seen as the creative heart of Dunedin, with numerous art galleries, video production companies, and the city's professional theatre (the Fortune Theatre) all being based in the area from Moray Place to Rattray Street.
Some parts of the Bell Hill cutting are still visible from Princes Street, though the most obvious escarpment of the hill is found between Moray Place and Queen's Gardens, close to First Church. From Princes Street, the most notable part of the cutting is at Dowling Street, 300 metres south of the Octagon. Dowling Street narrows significantly above this intersection. The Dowling Street Steps, a 1926 structure listed by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, rise from close to the Princes Street-Dowling Street intersection, ascending a cliff that was formed as a result of the original work on Bell Hill.
has drifted north to its current location on George Street. Princes Street still contains many of the city's older and more stately business properties, particularly in the few blocks from The Exchange south. This area is also the lowest part of the street, as it descends from the remains of Bell Hill. This area, now several hundred metres inland from the edge of the Otago Harbour
, was the site of the original landing place of settlers from the two ships which brought the Otago Association's settlers to Dunedin. Massive reclamation of the area led to the creation of a wide strip of land, since occupied by commercial premises, warehousing, and the main rail line. The original nature of the site is reflected in the names of Jetty Street and Water Street, both of which cross Princes Street close to the Exchange. This part of Princes Street was at one point the location of a bridge across a small stream, the Toitu Stream, now diverted underground. A spring which fed the stream is still used as the source of water for Speight's Brewery
, which is located 200 metres to the northwest on Rattray Street.
The former Exchange Building, from which The Exchange takes its name, was an impressive structure, designed by William Mason as a Post Office and later occupied by the University of Otago
and the Otago Museum
. Next to this was the 1863 Customhouse building, and outside the two was an open space known as Customhouse Square. The Exchange building was pulled down in 1969, and it was largely the destruction of this building that led to changes in attitudes by Dunedinites regarding the change of their cityscape. Since this time, changes to the city's old buildings have been met with vociferous protests. The Customhouse building is also long since gone. Today, the site of the buildings is the location of Dunedin's biggest office block, John Wickliffe House, and the nearby John Wickliffe Plaza. Both are named for the John Wickliffe
, the first of the two ships which brought the Otago Association's settlers to Dunedin (a nearby building, Philip Laing House, is named for the other of these two ships). Despite this, the area is the site of several prominent Victorian buildings, notably former bank buildings at the northern end of the area. Other imposing buildings in the area include the Chief Post Office building, the proposed site of a new public library after efforts to develop the building into a hotel failed, and - one block to the east - Consultancy House
, a seven-storey 1908 building regarded (by dint of its construction methods) as Dunedin's first skyscraper. John Wickliffe Plaza is also the site of one of Dunedin's more notable public monuments, dedicated to city founder Captain William Cargill
. This monument, designed by Charles Robert Swyer and built in 1863-4, was originally sited in the Octagon, but was moved to the Exchange in 1872.
The Exchange was at one time a complex intersection with two busy streets, Rattray Street and High Street. These lead from State Highway 1
at Queen's Gardens (an open park containing the city's main war memorial, close to which lies the Otago Settlers' Museum and the Dunedin Chinese Garden
) 200 metres to the east of Princes Street, to the older hill suburbs to the west. Though these streets originally both crossed Princes Street, civic planning has reduced High Street at the intersection to a minor road, and John Wickliffe Plaza now covers part of the original intersection. Apart from the Cargill Monument, the Plaza contains several other items of public sculpture, notably a series of three small brass penguins called "We are not alone", sculpted by Parry Jones
and unveiled in 1999. A Historic Places Trust blue plaque at the foot of the Cargill Monument marks the location of the first Salvation Army
meeting in New Zealand, held at the site in April 1883.
music scene of the 1980s, of which it was a principal venue. Prior to its gutting by fire in the 1980s, the Prince of Wales Hotel, a block further down Princes Street, was noted for an unusual gimmick, in that the upstairs restaurant facilities were extensively themed on old railway carriages, and included in their decor several original vintage pieces of rolling stock. The Prince of Wales has since been home to one of the city's top restaurants, Bell Pepper Blues.
Lower Princes Street rises slightly from the Exchange before dropping down, becoming flat for the final kilometre of its length. Here, there is a mix of commercial, wholesale, and light industrial properties, with only occasional retail shops. The street itself widens from thee crest below the Exchange, becoming a dual carriageway from this point south to the major junction at the southern end of the Oval. Several notable buildings are still found in the lower Princes Street area, among them the former H.E. Shacklock building and the Crown Roller Mills Building, the latter in particular being a notable landmark.
The Crown Roller Mills building is not in Princes Street itself, but rather lies at the foot of Manor Place, close to its intersection with Princes Street. It stands at the edge of a small area of parkland called the Market Reserve, at the opposite edge of which is the city's main bus depot. This area was swampland when the first European settlers arrived in Dunedin, but was reclaimed and did host a regular market for a few years from the 1870s. The market was not well-supported, however, and eventually folded. The bus depot is located on the site of the city's 1902 Tram workshops. The Market Reserve also contains a children's playground and, at the edge closes to the Crown Roller Mills Building, a small monument dedicated to Otago workers who have lost their lives while at work. This simple bluestone
memorial was erected in 2003 by the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions on a site donated by the Dunedin City Council.
At the bottom end of Princes Street is the former Dunedin Metropolitan Club building, now home to Natural History New Zealand
, one of the country's leading television production companies. Opposite this lies a large recreation reserve, which — despite its roughly triangular shape — is called the Oval, or more correctly, Kensington Oval. Kensington Oval contains mainly cricket and association football pitches, and also caters for rugby, hockey, and softball. The Oval also contains one of the city's main war memorials, dedicated to the fallen of the Boer War
campaign. This likes close to the Oval's northernmost point. Close to the Oval are two major road junctions. At the north end, a link road connects Princes Street with the city's one-way street system (part of State Highway 1
) and with Anderson's Bay Road, a major arterial route to South Dunedin
and Otago Peninsula
. The part of Princes Street close to the Oval, as well as several other nearby streets, is used annually as part of the Dunedin Street Circuit
, a temporary inner city motor-racing circuit used during the week-long Southern Festival of Speed
.
At the southern end of the Oval is a further junction, with Princes Street terminating in a link road to South Dunedin
's main street, King Edward Street, and a further road skirting the edge of a hilly spur to join South Road at the northern end of the suburb of Caversham
. This latter road passes Dunedin's Southern Cemetery
, the oldest and arguably most historic of the city's main cemeteries. The Southern Cemetery's earliest graves are from 1858, and it contains the remains of many of the city's founding fathers, including Captain William Cargill
, Thomas Burns
, and Johnny Jones. The cemetery is notable for its large Chinese and Jewish sections.
In the city's early years trams followed many of these same routes. Until the demise of the system in the 1950s, this area was also at the heart of the Dunedin cable tramway system
, with the longer lines running up the slopes of City Rise
via High, Rattray, or Stuart Streets
.
Category I or Category II protected buildings as Princes Street. These buildings include the following:
The Cargill Monument at John Wickliffe Plaza is also listed (Category I), as are numerous buildings and structures which lie close to the intersection of side roads with Princes Street (e.g., the Category I Crown Roller Mills Building in Manor Place and the Category II Dowling Street Steps).
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
, the second largest city in the South Island
South Island
The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...
of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. It runs south-southwest for two kilometres from The Octagon
The Octagon, Dunedin
The Octagon is the city centre of Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand.-Features:The Octagon is an eight sided plaza bisected by the city's main street, which is called George Street to the northeast and Princes Street to the southwest...
in the city centre to the Oval sports ground, close to the city's Southern Cemetery
Dunedin Southern Cemetery
The Southern Cemetery in the New Zealand city of Dunedin was the first major cemetery to be opened in the city. The cemetery was opened in 1858, ten years after the founding of the city in an area known as "Little Paisley"...
. North of The Octagon, George Street continues the line of Princes Street north-northeast for two and a half kilometres. Princes Street is straight and undulates as it skirts the edge of the City Rise
City Rise
City Rise is an inner suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. One of the city's older suburbs, it is, as its name suggests, centred on the slopes which lie close to the city centre, particularly those closest to the city's original heart of The Exchange...
to its northwest. The part of the street immediately below The Octagon is the steepest section, as the road traverses an old cutting through Bell Hill.
Princes Street was developed during Dunedin's 1860s boom from the Central Otago gold rush
Central Otago Gold Rush
The Central Otago Gold Rush was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand...
, and consequently is one of New Zealand's most historic streets, with about 70 buildings in close proximity listed on the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Register. Originally the site of the city's wharf, a substantial area of land to the east of the street was formerly part of Otago Harbour
Otago Harbour
Otago Harbour is the natural harbour of Dunedin, New Zealand, consisting of a long, much-indented stretch of generally navigable water separating the Otago Peninsula from the mainland. They join at its southwest end, from the harbour mouth...
, much of it reclaimed via rock removed during the lowering of Bell Hill which separated Princes Street from northern Dunedin in the early years of settlement. In the years following the gold rush, Princes Street was the heart of Dunedin's central business district, but much of the city's main retail area has now shifted north to George Street.
History
In the early years of Dunedin's settlement, much of the city's growth was on two areas of reasonably flat land close to the harbour, separated by the large Bell Hill and an area of low swampy land. The northern of these two flat areas surrounded the floodplain of the Water of LeithWater of Leith, New Zealand
The Water of Leith , is a small river in the South Island of New Zealand.It rises to the north of the city of Dunedin, flowing for 14 kilometres southeast through the northern part of the city and the campus of the University of Otago before reaching the Otago Harbour...
, a small river that runs through Dunedin. As the city grew the swamp was drained to become the new city's centre, and the hill was lowered by excavation to allow access between the two areas of settlement. A street grid was set up with the main road split in two by the city centre (now The Octagon
The Octagon, Dunedin
The Octagon is the city centre of Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand.-Features:The Octagon is an eight sided plaza bisected by the city's main street, which is called George Street to the northeast and Princes Street to the southwest...
) - Princes Street to the south and George Street to the north. As with many of the city's other place names, both these names and that of the Water of Leith reflect the names of places in Edinburgh.
In the settlement's early days, Bell Hill proved a major obstacle to travel south of the city centre, and major excavation work was carried out to provide access to the south. A cutting was made in the hill in 1858, and during the 1860s the hill was lowered by some 14 metres (45.9 ft). The cutting allowed for the passage of transport between the two parts of the town. The southern flank of the hill was also completely removed (that area now being occupied by Queen's Gardens). The stone removed from the hill was used as construction material for many of the city's first permanent buildings, and also as fill to reclaim the northern end of the Southern Endowment along the edge of the harbour. This reclamation work added a considerable area to the central city; the original docks, close to the Exchange area of Princes Street, are now several hundred metres inland.
The area of Princes Street between the Exchange and Market Reserve was a frequent source of dispute in the early years of European settlement. This area, at that time on the foreshore of Otago Harbour
Otago Harbour
Otago Harbour is the natural harbour of Dunedin, New Zealand, consisting of a long, much-indented stretch of generally navigable water separating the Otago Peninsula from the mainland. They join at its southwest end, from the harbour mouth...
was a traditional landing site for Māori waka
Waka (canoe)
Waka are Māori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes used for fishing and river travel, to large decorated war canoes up to long...
. Captain Cargill
William Cargill
William Walter Cargill was the founder of the Otago settlement in New Zealand, after serving as an officer in the British Army. He was a Member of Parliament and Otago's first Superintendent.-Early life:...
, the founder of the new city, wished to follow the British practice of keeping the foreshore as public land. As the town spread, the area around the landing site became populated by settlers, and visiting Maori relied on the coastal strip as a place to set up their encampments. The southern Commissioner for Crown Lands, Walter Mantell
Walter Mantell
Walter Baldock Durrant Mantell was a 19th century New Zealand scientist, politician, and Land Purchase Commissioner. He was a founder and first secretary of the New Zealand Institute, and discovered and collected Moa remains....
noted the problem and proposed to his superiors in Wellington that a site be found at which the Māori could erect permanent structures, naming the Princes Street foreshore as the preferred site. Mantell and Cargill, who had been bitter political opponents for the control of the early settlement, quickly found themselves at loggerheads over the proposal, and disputes over the ownership and allocation of the land dragged on for over two decades, finally being settled in the courts in 1877.
In the years following the Central Otago Gold Rush
Central Otago Gold Rush
The Central Otago Gold Rush was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand...
of the 1860s Dunedin grew rapidly, with much of the growth being centred on Princes Street. In the city's early years this road was notorious for its unformed rough nature, a consequence of the work on Bell Hill, and led to Dunedin's early nickname of "Mud-edin". The prosperity brought by the gold rush led to a boom in construction, and within a handful of years, the area around lower Princes Street became the most prosperous in the country. Many of the prominent grand buildings of this part of Dunedin date from this period, and numerous structures in the area have New Zealand Historic Places Trust
New Zealand Historic Places Trust
The New Zealand Historic Places Trust is a non-profit trust that advocates for the protection of ancestral sites and heritage buildings in New Zealand...
classification as a result.
There is a considerable photographic record of early Princes Street, largely thanks to the presence in the street of the studios of the Burton Brothers
Burton Brothers
Burton Brothers was one of New Zealand's most important nineteenth century photographic studios and was based in Dunedin, New Zealand...
, pioneering New Zealand photographers. Many of their images, and those of other early Dunedin photographers, were collated and published in a series of books by photographic historian Hardwicke Knight
Hardwicke Knight
Frederick Hardwicke Knight was a prominent author and photographer from Broad Bay, New Zealand...
, one of which — a collection of photographic works by Daniel Louis Mundy — was entitled Princes Street by gaslight (1977).
Several notable companies have either been founded or had their headquarters in Princes Street. Notable among these were The Drapery and General Importing Company of New Zealand, later simply known as The D.I.C.
D.I.C. (department store)
The D.I.C. was a New Zealand department store chain, founded in Dunedin by Bendix Hallenstein in 1884.It was bought out by one of its chief rivals, Arthur Barnett, in the 1980s...
, Hallenstein's, and H.E. Shacklock. The first New Zealand headquarters of Briscoes were also located on Princes Street.
The "Top 100"
Moray Place, Dunedin
Moray Place is an octagonal street which surrounds the city centre of Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. The street is intersected by Stuart Street , Princes Street and George Street...
before descending through the original cutting of Bell Hill towards the Exchange. The Top 100 theoretically takes its name from the 100 retail businesses which line Princes Street from the Octagon to the Exchange, although the actual number of businesses is not one hundred. This part of the city is sometimes seen as the creative heart of Dunedin, with numerous art galleries, video production companies, and the city's professional theatre (the Fortune Theatre) all being based in the area from Moray Place to Rattray Street.
Some parts of the Bell Hill cutting are still visible from Princes Street, though the most obvious escarpment of the hill is found between Moray Place and Queen's Gardens, close to First Church. From Princes Street, the most notable part of the cutting is at Dowling Street, 300 metres south of the Octagon. Dowling Street narrows significantly above this intersection. The Dowling Street Steps, a 1926 structure listed by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, rise from close to the Princes Street-Dowling Street intersection, ascending a cliff that was formed as a result of the original work on Bell Hill.
The Exchange
The Exchange, on Princes Street 400 metres south of The Octagon, was the original financial heart of the city, but the CBDCentral 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"...
has drifted north to its current location on George Street. Princes Street still contains many of the city's older and more stately business properties, particularly in the few blocks from The Exchange south. This area is also the lowest part of the street, as it descends from the remains of Bell Hill. This area, now several hundred metres inland from the edge of the Otago Harbour
Otago Harbour
Otago Harbour is the natural harbour of Dunedin, New Zealand, consisting of a long, much-indented stretch of generally navigable water separating the Otago Peninsula from the mainland. They join at its southwest end, from the harbour mouth...
, was the site of the original landing place of settlers from the two ships which brought the Otago Association's settlers to Dunedin. Massive reclamation of the area led to the creation of a wide strip of land, since occupied by commercial premises, warehousing, and the main rail line. The original nature of the site is reflected in the names of Jetty Street and Water Street, both of which cross Princes Street close to the Exchange. This part of Princes Street was at one point the location of a bridge across a small stream, the Toitu Stream, now diverted underground. A spring which fed the stream is still used as the source of water for Speight's Brewery
Speight's
Speight's is a brewery in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is famous for its promotional branding based on being 'a real southern man' and being 'the pride of the south'. Speight's also gave rise to a series of Speight's Ale Houses across New Zealand.- History :...
, which is located 200 metres to the northwest on Rattray Street.
The former Exchange Building, from which The Exchange takes its name, was an impressive structure, designed by William Mason as a Post Office and later occupied by the University of Otago
University of Otago
The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 22,000 students enrolled during 2010.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...
and the Otago Museum
Otago museum
The Otago Museum is situated in Dunedin, New Zealand. It was founded in 1868 and has a collection of over two million artefacts and specimens from the fields of natural history and ethnography...
. Next to this was the 1863 Customhouse building, and outside the two was an open space known as Customhouse Square. The Exchange building was pulled down in 1969, and it was largely the destruction of this building that led to changes in attitudes by Dunedinites regarding the change of their cityscape. Since this time, changes to the city's old buildings have been met with vociferous protests. The Customhouse building is also long since gone. Today, the site of the buildings is the location of Dunedin's biggest office block, John Wickliffe House, and the nearby John Wickliffe Plaza. Both are named for the John Wickliffe
John Wickliffe (ship)
John Wickliffe was the first ship to arrive carrying Scottish settlers, including Otago settlement founder Captain William Cargill, in the city of Dunedin, New Zealand...
, the first of the two ships which brought the Otago Association's settlers to Dunedin (a nearby building, Philip Laing House, is named for the other of these two ships). Despite this, the area is the site of several prominent Victorian buildings, notably former bank buildings at the northern end of the area. Other imposing buildings in the area include the Chief Post Office building, the proposed site of a new public library after efforts to develop the building into a hotel failed, and - one block to the east - Consultancy House
Consultancy House
Consultancy House is a historic building in The Exchange, in downtown Dunedin, New Zealand. It has a New Zealand Historic Places Trust grade I classification....
, a seven-storey 1908 building regarded (by dint of its construction methods) as Dunedin's first skyscraper. John Wickliffe Plaza is also the site of one of Dunedin's more notable public monuments, dedicated to city founder Captain William Cargill
William Cargill
William Walter Cargill was the founder of the Otago settlement in New Zealand, after serving as an officer in the British Army. He was a Member of Parliament and Otago's first Superintendent.-Early life:...
. This monument, designed by Charles Robert Swyer and built in 1863-4, was originally sited in the Octagon, but was moved to the Exchange in 1872.
The Exchange was at one time a complex intersection with two busy streets, Rattray Street and High Street. These lead from State Highway 1
State Highway 1 (New Zealand)
State Highway 1 is the longest and most significant road in the New Zealand roading network, running the length of both main islands. It appears on road maps as SH 1 and on road signs as a white number 1 on a red shield, but it has the official designations SH 1N in the North Island, SH 1S in the...
at Queen's Gardens (an open park containing the city's main war memorial, close to which lies the Otago Settlers' Museum and the Dunedin Chinese Garden
Dunedin Chinese Garden
The Dunedin Chinese Garden, is located in the city of Dunedin in southern New Zealand. It is sited next to the Otago Settlers' Museum close to the centre of the city and numerous other of the city's tourist attractions, including the Dunedin Railway Station and Queen's Gardens.-Name and...
) 200 metres to the east of Princes Street, to the older hill suburbs to the west. Though these streets originally both crossed Princes Street, civic planning has reduced High Street at the intersection to a minor road, and John Wickliffe Plaza now covers part of the original intersection. Apart from the Cargill Monument, the Plaza contains several other items of public sculpture, notably a series of three small brass penguins called "We are not alone", sculpted by Parry Jones
Parry Jones
Parry Jones may refer to:* Gwynn Parry Jones , Welsh tenor*Rhys Parry Jones, Welsh TV actor-See also:*Love Parry Jones-Parry , British army officer and High Sheriff of Anglesey*Jones Parry...
and unveiled in 1999. A Historic Places Trust blue plaque at the foot of the Cargill Monument marks the location of the first Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
meeting in New Zealand, held at the site in April 1883.
Below the Exchange
The lower Exchange and area immediately to the south of it contains some other notable buildings, including several of Dunedin's more notable former and current public houses. Among these are Wain's Hotel, the Provincial Hotel (at the foot of Stafford Street), the Empire Tavern, and the former Prince of Wales Hotel. Wain's Hotel, immediately opposite the former Post Office building, is an imposing Italianate structure built in 1878 from designs by Mason and Wales. The Empire Tavern also has a long history, and claims to be Dunedin's oldest pub, having been continuously licensed since 1858. Its recent past is closely tied with the Dunedin SoundDunedin Sound
The Dunedin sound was a style of indie pop music created in the southern New Zealand university city of Dunedin in the early 1980s.-Characteristics:...
music scene of the 1980s, of which it was a principal venue. Prior to its gutting by fire in the 1980s, the Prince of Wales Hotel, a block further down Princes Street, was noted for an unusual gimmick, in that the upstairs restaurant facilities were extensively themed on old railway carriages, and included in their decor several original vintage pieces of rolling stock. The Prince of Wales has since been home to one of the city's top restaurants, Bell Pepper Blues.
Lower Princes Street rises slightly from the Exchange before dropping down, becoming flat for the final kilometre of its length. Here, there is a mix of commercial, wholesale, and light industrial properties, with only occasional retail shops. The street itself widens from thee crest below the Exchange, becoming a dual carriageway from this point south to the major junction at the southern end of the Oval. Several notable buildings are still found in the lower Princes Street area, among them the former H.E. Shacklock building and the Crown Roller Mills Building, the latter in particular being a notable landmark.
The Crown Roller Mills building is not in Princes Street itself, but rather lies at the foot of Manor Place, close to its intersection with Princes Street. It stands at the edge of a small area of parkland called the Market Reserve, at the opposite edge of which is the city's main bus depot. This area was swampland when the first European settlers arrived in Dunedin, but was reclaimed and did host a regular market for a few years from the 1870s. The market was not well-supported, however, and eventually folded. The bus depot is located on the site of the city's 1902 Tram workshops. The Market Reserve also contains a children's playground and, at the edge closes to the Crown Roller Mills Building, a small monument dedicated to Otago workers who have lost their lives while at work. This simple bluestone
Bluestone
Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:*a feldspathic sandstone in the U.S. and Canada;*limestone in the Shenandoah Valley in the U.S...
memorial was erected in 2003 by the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions on a site donated by the Dunedin City Council.
At the bottom end of Princes Street is the former Dunedin Metropolitan Club building, now home to Natural History New Zealand
Natural History New Zealand
NHNZ is a New Zealand-based factual television production company that creates around 60 hours of television programming each year in the genres of nature, history, science, adventure and people....
, one of the country's leading television production companies. Opposite this lies a large recreation reserve, which — despite its roughly triangular shape — is called the Oval, or more correctly, Kensington Oval. Kensington Oval contains mainly cricket and association football pitches, and also caters for rugby, hockey, and softball. The Oval also contains one of the city's main war memorials, dedicated to the fallen of the Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
campaign. This likes close to the Oval's northernmost point. Close to the Oval are two major road junctions. At the north end, a link road connects Princes Street with the city's one-way street system (part of State Highway 1
State Highway 1 (New Zealand)
State Highway 1 is the longest and most significant road in the New Zealand roading network, running the length of both main islands. It appears on road maps as SH 1 and on road signs as a white number 1 on a red shield, but it has the official designations SH 1N in the North Island, SH 1S in the...
) and with Anderson's Bay Road, a major arterial route to South Dunedin
South Dunedin
South Dunedin is a major inner city suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located, as its name suggests, to the south of the city centre, on part of a large plain known locally simply as "The Flat". The suburb is a mix of industrial, retail, and predominantly lower-quality residential...
and Otago Peninsula
Otago Peninsula
The Otago Peninsula is a long, hilly indented finger of land that forms the easternmost part of Dunedin, New Zealand. Volcanic in origin, it forms one wall of the eroded valley that now forms Otago Harbour. The peninsula lies south-east of Otago Harbour and runs parallel to the mainland for...
. The part of Princes Street close to the Oval, as well as several other nearby streets, is used annually as part of the Dunedin Street Circuit
Dunedin Street Circuit
Dunedin Street Circuit is a temporary street circuit for classic and club racers following some of Dunedin's 1950s street circuit. It is situated at the southern end of Dunedin's city centre, some 1500 metres south of The Octagon...
, a temporary inner city motor-racing circuit used during the week-long Southern Festival of Speed
Southern Festival of Speed
The Southern Festival of Speed was a classic and historic race series that was started since the late 1980s with the revival of the 1950s Dunedin Street Circuit. It comprised rounds at three established South Island permanent circuits and one temporary Dunedin's circuit...
.
At the southern end of the Oval is a further junction, with Princes Street terminating in a link road to South Dunedin
South Dunedin
South Dunedin is a major inner city suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located, as its name suggests, to the south of the city centre, on part of a large plain known locally simply as "The Flat". The suburb is a mix of industrial, retail, and predominantly lower-quality residential...
's main street, King Edward Street, and a further road skirting the edge of a hilly spur to join South Road at the northern end of the suburb of Caversham
Caversham, New Zealand
Caversham is one of the older suburbs of the South Island New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is sited at the western edge of the city's central plain at the mouth of the steep Caversham Valley, which rises to the saddle of Lookout Point...
. This latter road passes Dunedin's Southern Cemetery
Dunedin Southern Cemetery
The Southern Cemetery in the New Zealand city of Dunedin was the first major cemetery to be opened in the city. The cemetery was opened in 1858, ten years after the founding of the city in an area known as "Little Paisley"...
, the oldest and arguably most historic of the city's main cemeteries. The Southern Cemetery's earliest graves are from 1858, and it contains the remains of many of the city's founding fathers, including Captain William Cargill
William Cargill
William Walter Cargill was the founder of the Otago settlement in New Zealand, after serving as an officer in the British Army. He was a Member of Parliament and Otago's first Superintendent.-Early life:...
, Thomas Burns
Thomas Burns (New Zealand)
Thomas Burns was a prominent early European settler and religious leader of the province of Otago, New Zealand.Burns was baptised at Mauchline, Ayrshire, Scotland in April 1796, the son of estate manager Gilbert Burns, who was the brother of the poet Robert Burns...
, and Johnny Jones. The cemetery is notable for its large Chinese and Jewish sections.
Transport links
The top section of Princes Street, from the Octagon to the Exchange, has long been the hub of Dunedin's public transport system. Buses from the north of the city largely pass along George Street and into the Octagon, those from the south pass into the southern end of Princes Street, and those from the hill suburbs arrive at the Octagon via Stuart Street or at the Exchange via High and Rattray Streets. Almost all of these use upper Princes Street between the Exchange and the Octagon as part of their route.In the city's early years trams followed many of these same routes. Until the demise of the system in the 1950s, this area was also at the heart of the Dunedin cable tramway system
Dunedin cable tramway system
The Dunedin cable tramway system was a group of cable tramway lines in the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is significant as Dunedin was the second city in the world to adopt the cable car .- History :...
, with the longer lines running up the slopes of City Rise
City Rise
City Rise is an inner suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. One of the city's older suburbs, it is, as its name suggests, centred on the slopes which lie close to the city centre, particularly those closest to the city's original heart of The Exchange...
via High, Rattray, or Stuart Streets
Stuart Street, Dunedin
Stuart Street is one of the main streets of Dunedin, New Zealand. As with many of Dunedin's streets, it is named after a main street in Edinburgh, Scotland....
.
New Zealand Historic Places Trust listed buildings
Few, if any, streets in New Zealand contain as many New Zealand Historic Places TrustNew Zealand Historic Places Trust
The New Zealand Historic Places Trust is a non-profit trust that advocates for the protection of ancestral sites and heritage buildings in New Zealand...
Category I or Category II protected buildings as Princes Street. These buildings include the following:
- The Haynes' Building, 42-72 Princes St (cnr. Princes St and Moray PlaceMoray Place, DunedinMoray Place is an octagonal street which surrounds the city centre of Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. The street is intersected by Stuart Street , Princes Street and George Street...
) (Category I). Often now known as the Savoy Building after the restaurant which is its main tenant, this four-storey building was designed by Edmund AnscombeEdmund AnscombeEdmund Anscombe was one of the most important figures to shape the architectural and urban fabric of New Zealand. He was important, not only because of the prolific nature of his practice and the quality of his work, but also because of the range and the scale of his built and speculative projects...
and completed in 1914. The building, with its distinctive cupolaCupolaIn architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
, is a major landmark of upper Princes Street, lying one block south of the Octagon. - The Queen's Building, 109 Princes St (Category II). An early, if small, skyscraper, the five-storey Queen's Building was completed in 1929 on the site of the former Queen's Theatre, to a design of J. Louis SalmondJ. Louis SalmondJames Louis Salmond was an English-born architect active in New Zealand in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of his buildings remain, particularly in Otago...
. - Excelsior Apartments, 33 Dowling Street (cnr. of Dowling and Princes Sts) (Category II). Standing at the heart of Dunedin's 19th century Central Business District, the Excelsior Apartments are an 1888 structure originally built as a tavern and hotel. The building was designed by Robert ForrestRobert ForrestRobert Forrest was a Scottish monumental sculptor, receiving many important commissions in the early 19th century.He was self-taught, beginning his working life as a mason in a stone quarry in Clydesdale...
. - The National Bank Building, 193 Princes St (Category I). Designed by William Dunning, an Australian architect, and Charles Fleming MacDonald, this building is reminiscent of many of the grander buildings in Melbourne and Sydney. Constructed in a neo-BaroqueBaroqueThe Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
style, it uses Tasmanian sandstone and trachyteTrachyteTrachyte is an igneous volcanic rock with an aphanitic to porphyritic texture. The mineral assemblage consists of essential alkali feldspar; relatively minor plagioclase and quartz or a feldspathoid such as nepheline may also be present....
as a major feature in its façade, and was completed in 1913. - The Façade of the old Woolworth's Building, 194 Princes St (Category II).
- The Bank of New Zealand Building, 205 Princes St (cnr. Princes and High Sts) (Category I). Designed in Venetian Renaissance styling, the 1882 BNZ building stands just two doors along from the National Bank building. The William ArmsonWilliam ArmsonWilliam Barnett Armson was an architect, surveyor, engineer in colonial New Zealand. A co-founder of the Canterbury Association of Architects, and an architect to the provincial government, he established the architectural firm of Armson, Collins and Harman in 1870, which remained active until 1993...
-designed building is notable for the richly carved exterior work by Louis Godfrey and moulded ceilings in its interior. The façade combines DoricDoric orderThe Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
, IonicIonic orderThe Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...
and CorinthianCorinthian orderThe Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...
styles, and makes good use of Port ChalmersPort ChalmersPort Chalmers is a suburb and the main port of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, with a population of 3,000. Port Chalmers lies ten kilometres inside Otago Harbour, some 15 kilometres northeast from Dunedin's city centre....
bluestoneBluestoneBluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:*a feldspathic sandstone in the U.S. and Canada;*limestone in the Shenandoah Valley in the U.S...
and Oamaru stoneOamaru stoneOamaru stone is a hard, compact limestone, quarried at Weston, near Oamaru in Otago, New Zealand.The stone is used for building purposes, especially where ornate moulding is required. The finished stonework has a creamy, sandy colour...
, a compact, cream-coloured limestone. - The Southern Cross Hotel, 118 High St (cnr. High and Princes Sts) (Category I). One of Dunedin's principal hotels, the Southern Cross is housed in an impressive 1883 building designed by Louis Boldini. It occupies a prominent corner site in the heart of the Exchange. Formerly the Grand Hotel, the building has been extended considerably on several occasions in its history, and was considerably renovated in the 1980s, though most of its original features remain. The Southern Cross Hotel Building is home to Dunedin CasinoDunedin CasinoThe Dunedin Casino opened in 1999 in the city of Dunedin in New Zealand. It is located in The Exchange, south of the city centre, in the Southern Cross Hotel building....
. - The Clarion Building, 282-292 Princes St (Category II). This 1878 William Mason building was originally a major drapery store in the heart of what was then Dunedin's retail district. The exterior is of Venetian GothicVenetian Gothic architectureVenetian Gothic is a term given to an architectural style combining use of the Gothic lancet arch with Byzantine and Moorish architecture influences. The style originated in 14th century Venice with the confluence of Byzantine styles from Constantinople, Arab influences from Moorish Spain and early...
style, though the interior has been largely redeveloped in recent years. - The Chief Post Office Building, 283 Princes St (Category II). The Chief Post Office Building has not had an easy history. Designed by John Mair and the Governments Architects Office, construction was severely delayed by the Great DepressionGreat DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Originally intended to be built in the early 1930s, it was not completed until 1937. A sturdy and impressive structure, possibly modelled on some of the government architecture in vogue in the United Kingdom during this era, the building held Dunedin's main post office branch until the late 1980s. Since this time it has lain largely empty; many plans have been put forward for its use, including a hotel, a new site for the city's public library, and offices for wither the Dunedin City Council or Otago Regional Council. , the building still remains largely derelict.
- Wain's Hotel, 310 Princes St (Category I). Built in 1879 to a design by Mason and Wales, Wain's Hotel remains Dunedin's grandest hotel building, and reflects the opulence which followed the Central Otago Gold RushCentral Otago Gold RushThe Central Otago Gold Rush was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand...
of the 1860s. The interior has been substantially remodelled, but the exterior's Italianate Renaissance façade remains largely intact. This latter features much intricate work by mason George Munro, notably the figures found carved within the panelled spandrelSpandrelA spandrel, less often spandril or splaundrel, is the space between two arches or between an arch and a rectangular enclosure....
s and supporting the façade's oriel windowOriel windowOriel windows are a form of bay window commonly found in Gothic architecture, which project from the main wall of the building but do not reach to the ground. Corbels or brackets are often used to support this kind of window. They are seen in combination with the Tudor arch. This type of window was...
s. - The ANZ Bank Building, Dunedin, 319 Princes St (Category II). Robert LawsonRobert Lawson (architect)Robert Arthur Lawson was one of New Zealand's pre-eminent 19th century architects. It has been said he did more than any other designer to shape the face of the Victorian era architecture of the city of Dunedin...
's 1874 Union Bank of Australasia building is the only classical temple form structure in Dunedin. It is a partner to the architect's work on bank buildings in OamaruOamaruOamaru , the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is 80 kilometres south of Timaru and 120 kilometres north of Dunedin, on the Pacific coast, and State Highway 1 and the railway Main South Line connects it to both...
, and features carved Corinthian columns by Godfrey. The building continued to be used as a bank until 1992, and now houses a night club. - The H.E. Shacklock Building, 595-625 Princes St (Category II). The only listed manufacturing building in Princes Street, the Shacklock building covers a large site at the southern end of Princes Street opposite the Market Reserve.
The Cargill Monument at John Wickliffe Plaza is also listed (Category I), as are numerous buildings and structures which lie close to the intersection of side roads with Princes Street (e.g., the Category I Crown Roller Mills Building in Manor Place and the Category II Dowling Street Steps).
See also
- Colombo StreetColombo StreetColombo Street is a main road of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It runs south-north through the centre of Christchurch with a break at Cathedral Square. As with many other central Christchurch streets, it is named for a colonial Anglican bishopric, Colombo, in what at the time was known as...
, Christchurch - History of DunedinHistory of DunedinThe city of Dunedin, New Zealand has played an important role in the history of New Zealand. Archaeological evidence points to the area having been long inhabited by Māori prior to the European arrival. It was a significant centre in the Archaic period when the North Island was scarcely inhabited....
- Lambton Quay, Wellington
- List of main streets of New Zealand cities
- Princes StreetPrinces StreetPrinces Street is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, and its main shopping street. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, stretching around 1 mile from Lothian Road in the west to Leith Street in the east. The street is mostly closed to private...
, Edinburgh - Queen StreetQueen Street, AucklandQueen Street is the major commercial thoroughfare in the Auckland CBD, Auckland, New Zealand's main population centre. It starts at Queens Wharf on the Auckland waterfront, adjacent to the Britomart Transport Centre and the Downtown Ferry Terminal, and runs uphill for almost three kilometres in a...
, Auckland