Parnell, New Zealand Totally Explained

Everything about Parnell New Zealand totally explained

Parnell, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, dates from the Pakeha settlement of Auckland in 1841. To its west lies the Auckland Domain, to the south Newmarket, and to the north the commercial area of St Georges Bay with mainly office-space.
Parnell Rise and Parnell Road make up the main road through Parnell. Parnell Rise leads to the central business district to the west; Parnell Road runs from Parnell Rise uphill to the top of the suburb, and then bends almost 90 degrees and continues towards Newmarket in the south-east, where at the intersection with Davis Crescent it becomes Broadway. Early European settlers knew Parnell Road as "Manukau Road" until well after the formation of Khyber Pass (or Khyber Pass Road) in 1845.
Parnell has become one of the preferred places to live in Auckland, with house-prices rising rapidly over the last three years.

History

The Borough of Parnell amalgamated into the Auckland City Council area in 1913 or in 1915.

Buildings

The Anglican Cathedral, which stands at the top of the hill, has become an iconic feature of Parnell. It replaced the old wooden St Mary's, demolished in 1888, having served the community for 28 years. The current building has two parts: the brick choir and body of the church date from about 1960 and represent a "modern" simplified version of Gothic. This closely resembles Guildford Cathedral, by Edward Maufe, completed in 1961. (Guildford exempllifies Municipal Gothic: one commentator described it as "the dying gasp of the Gothic Revival in England".) The massing of the forms, the detailing of the masonry and the smooth expanses of plain brick occur in both buildings. Over the transept entrance stands a bronze sculpture of the Archangel Michael defeating the Devil, very similar to the Epstein sculpture of the same subject on Coventry Cathedral (finished 1962).
   The front part of the church, built in the 1990s to the design of Professor R.H. Toy and John Sinclair, recalls the new Coventry Cathedral built after World War II. It features large stained-glass windows, illuminated by the sunlight at certain times of the day. Māori motifs and symbols appear in the newer part of the building, which awaits a large spire to finish the composition.
   Next to this building stands the smaller wooden Gothic St Mary's. This dates from 1885 and served as the pro-cathedral after the demolition of the earlier St Mary's and until the building of the current cathedral. Designed by B.W Mountfort, it stood on the other side of Parnell Road until the 1980s.
   Across the road, on St Stephens Avenue near the intersection with Parnell Road, stands Bishopscourt or Selwyn Court, the residence of the Anglican Bishop of Auckland. This wooden gothic house, designed by Frederick Thatcher, has a chapel and an octagonal turret. Bishop Selwyn and his wife moved here in May 1865.
   In this area stand two houses of the same period as Bishopscourt, both open to the public: Kinder House, the residence of the Rev. John Kinder; and Ewelme Cottage. At the end of St Stephens Avenue one finds the Parnell Rose Gardens, Judges Bay and the Parnell Swimming Pool.
   During the early 1970s the suburb became rather dilapidated. A local businessman revitalised it as a week-end tourist shopping-destination. This involved Parnell reinventing itself as a set of "Ye Olde Worlde Shoppes". As many other Victorian buildings underwent demolition in Auckland at the time, period materials became available cheaply, and the buildings of Parnell village emerged altered, extended and tarted up in a somewhat fanciful but fun Victorian style. Some of this restyling remains in evidence.
   Along the upper part of Parnell Road stand a number of these houses, most of them now used by law firms, accountancy firms, shops, and a few restaurants.
   The lower part of Parnell has a larger concentration of Edwardian retail buildings, including a number of fashionable boutiques, nightclubs and bars. The streets to each side of Parnell Road remain mainly residential in character, with some townhouses and apartments, especially towards St Georges Bay Road.
   At the bottom of Parnell Rise runs Beach Road, so called because it ran round the beach-front of the now-reclaimed Mechanics Bay and Official Bay. St Georges Bay disappeared at the same time. Here stands the former Auckland Railway Station, an impressive brick 1930s structure, designed by Gummer and Ford. The City Fathers relocated the Railway Station here from the bottom of Queen Street to become the centrepiece for the new downtown business area of Auckland. The plan didn't prove successful; the station building has ceased to operate as a station and the Britomart Transport Centre has taken over the earlier location. This has started to prove a great success.

Politics

Mayors

The following served as Mayors of the Borough of Parnell until its incorporation into Auckland City:

1877 - 1877 Henry Matthew Nation
1877 - 1878 J.W. Melton
1878 - 1879 William Coleman
1879 - 1880 J.W. Robinson
1880 - 1881 J. Friar Clark
1881 - 1883 Robert Walker
1883 - 1885 D.H. McKenzie
1885 - 1887 Jonathan Winks
1887 - 1888 Seymour Thorne George
1888 - 1891 H.B. Sealy
1891 - 1892 Seymour Thorne George
1892 - 1894 John McCabe
1894 - 1895 George S. Kissling
1895 - 1896 Spencer Von Sturmer
1896 - 1897 Joseph Thornes
1897 - 1898 N.W. Pollard
1898 - 1903 Hugh Campbell
1903 - 1906 John Fitt
1906 - 1909 George W. Basley
1909 - 1913 Richard Stevenson Briggs

Electorate

Parnell forms part of the Epsom Electorate for Parliamentary representation, and of the Hobson Ward for council representation. Parnell represents approximately 20% of the population in each of these. The current Member of Parliament for Epsom, Rodney Hide, represents ACT New Zealand, and the serving councillors all stood on the Citizens and Ratepayers Now ticket.

Further Information

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