Wellesley Street is a street in the

Auckland City Centre The Auckland Central Business District (CBD), or Auckland city centre, is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. It is the area in which Auckland was established in 1840, by William Hobson on land gifted by ''ma ...

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 ...

, located between the south-east corner of Victoria Park and Grafton Road. The street is split into two sections at the junction of Queen Street, Wellesley Street West and Wellesley Street East.

History

The street was named after

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (; 1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was a British Army officer and statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures in Britain during t ...

. During the late 1880s, Wellesley Street became the cultural centre for Auckland, after the opening of the

Auckland Art Gallery Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions. Set be ...

and the Auckland central library. The intersection with Elliott Street was the location of the Fullers Opera House, and the area thrived, with

Vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

theatres and hotels becoming established around Wellesley Street. The Wellesley and Queen Street intersection became a transportation hub in the late 19th century, with the first horse-drawn trams linking Wellesley Street to Ponsonby starting operation in August 1884. By the early 20th century, the intersection was a major stop for the Auckland tramway network. The St James apartments were constructed in 1910 for the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

. By 1955, the building had become too small for the YMCA, who relocated, with the building later becoming apartments. A Rotary automatic telephone exchange system was installed in Auckland in 1924, with the central city telephone exchange (WLT) located on Wellesley Street. The new Auckland central library opened on Wellesley Street in 1971. The Auckland Art Gallery also expanded in 1971 and 1981.

Notable locations

*The Auckland central library * Civic Theatre at the junction with Queen Street, which was constructed in 1929. * Smith & Caughey's, a department store established in 1880 * St Matthew's, a historic

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

Anglican church.

References

{{Streets in Auckland Auckland CBD Streets in Auckland