Molesworth Street is located at the north end of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, the capital city of

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. Leading from the northern end of

Lambton Quay Lambton Quay (once known as The Beach) is the heart of the Wellington Central, Wellington, central business district of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Geography Originally, as the name implies, it was the high-water line of the f ...

, central Wellington's main street, it is a northbound one-way street linking the CBD with Tinakori Road, and through it, with main routes north out of the city. The street was named for

Sir William Molesworth, 8th Baronet Sir William Molesworth, 8th Baronet, (23 May 181022 October 1855) was a Radical British politician, who served in the coalition cabinet of The Earl of Aberdeen from 1853 until his death in 1855 as First Commissioner of Works and then Secr ...

, a prominent member of the

New Zealand Company The New Zealand Company, chartered in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom, was a company that existed in the first half of the 19th century on a business model that was focused on the systematic colonisation of New Ze ...

. There is another Molesworth Street in the Wellington metropolitan area, located in the

Lower Hutt Lower Hutt () is a list of cities in New Zealand, city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Administered by the Hutt City Council, it is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropoli ...

suburb of Taitā. Many of New Zealand's main governmental and archival institutions are located on Molesworth Street, most notably

New Zealand Parliament Buildings New Zealand Parliament Buildings () house the New Zealand Parliament and are on a 45,000 square metre site at the northern end of Lambton Quay, Wellington. From north to south, they are the New Zealand Parliamentary Library, Parliamentary Libra ...

, which are located at the street's southern end. The iconic

Beehive A beehive is an enclosed structure which houses honey bees, subgenus '' Apis.'' Honey bees live in the beehive, raising their young and producing honey as part of their seasonal cycle. Though the word ''beehive'' is used to describe the nest of ...

is a major landmark close to the street's junction with Lambton Quay and Bowen Street. The

New Zealand High Court The High Court of New Zealand () is the superior court of New Zealand. It has general jurisdiction and responsibility, under the Senior Courts Act 2016, as well as the High Court Rules 2016, for the administration of justice throughout New Zeala ...

is also located at the southern end of the building, directly opposite Parliament Buildings. Other prominent buildings on or near Molesworth Street include the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

, St Paul's Cathedral (Anglican) and the

National Library of New Zealand The National Library of New Zealand () is charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Mātauranga) Act 2003). Under the ...

, which also holds

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision (Operating name for The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga Kōrero.) is an archive that was launched on 31 July 2014, following the completion of a three-year proces ...

. Molesworth Street was also the site of New Zealand's first national cenotaph (this was later moved to the National War Memorial on Buckle Street, 2000 metres to the south). As the centre of political activity in New Zealand, Molesworth Street has been the site of many important events in New Zealand's history, including a large number of political protests. Prominent among these protests were those against the 1981 South African rugby tour, where on 29 July 1981, for the first time in New Zealand, police batoned political protesters.

Gallery

File:Bowen House Beehive Parliament.JPG, The Molesworth Street frontage of

The Beehive The Beehive () is the common name for the Executive Wing of New Zealand Parliament Buildings, located at the corner of Molesworth Street and Lambton Quay, Wellington. It is so-called because its shape is reminiscent of that of a traditional w ...

and Parliament Buildings File:Wellington High Court 2015.JPG, The

on Molesworth Street File:Court of Appeal Wellington front door.jpg, The front doors of the

File:St Paul's Anglican Cathedral front side Wellington 2015.JPG, Front and side of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

. Molesworth Street is on the right-hand side File:NLNZ ext 5.jpg,

entrance up off Molesworth Street File:Tearing down of 61 Molesworth Street.jpg, Demolition of building on Molesworth Street, after the

2016 Kaikōura earthquake The 2016 Kaikōura earthquake was a 7.8 earthquake in the South Island of New Zealand that occurred two minutes after midnight on 14 November 2016 Time in New Zealand, NZDT (11:02 on 13 November UTC). earthquake rupture, Ruptures occurred on ...

References

{{coord, -41.275182, 174.777848, region:NZ_type:landmark, display=title Streets in Wellington City