George Street, Dunedin

George Street, Dunedin, looking north

Central Dunedin. George Street (1) and Princes Street (4) are marked in red

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George Street is the main street of Dunedin, the second largest city in the South Island of New Zealand. It runs for some two and a half kilometres north-northeast from The Octagon in the city centre to the foot of Pine Hill. It is straight and undulates gently as it skirts the edge of the hills to its northwest. South of The Octagon, Princes Street continues the line of George Street south-southwest for two kilometres.

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 Leith, 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. Both these names, along with many of the city's other street names, reflect those in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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 (46 ft), much of the rubble forming the start of the Southern Endowment, a large area of land reclaimed from the Otago Harbour to the southeast of the city centre.

Until the early years of the 20th century, George Street stopped at the banks of the Leith at its northern end. A bridge, built in 1903, was one of the city's few bridges to survive disastrous floods in March 1929.

Modern George Street

Looking south toward the city centre. The grey spire of Knox Church is visible in the centre

George Street is an interesting mix of different types of property. The southern kilometre is taken up by Dunedin's CBD, with the city's civic centre and library occupying much of the first block (the majority of blocks are 200 metres long). Beyond this is a major shopping precinct, including Dunedin's largest shopping mall, the Meridian Mall. As the street approaches the northern end of its shopping area, many of the shops have a South East Asian flavour, in part due to the large proportion of Malaysian and Chinese students at the University of Otago, some 500 metres to the east.

At the northern end of the main shopping area the skyline is dominated by the spire of Knox Church, designed by R. A. Lawson. Beyond this is a mix of older residential houses and hotels. Many of Dunedin's more attractive inner city properties are at the north end of the street, quite a number of which have been divided up as student flats. At its northern end is the entrance to Woodhaugh Gardens, a major park, which lies to the west of George Street along the southern bank of the Leith. George Street continues over the Leith, ending as it passes under the Pine Hill Extension (part of State Highway 1). Beyond this bridge the street leads into Bank Street, a suburban arterial road, turning to the east before reaching a major junction at The Gardens.

Princes Street

From The Exchange, looking north up Princes Street towards The Octagon.

Princes Street and George Street form one 5 km-long street extending from the northern hills towards the southern suburbs, broken in the middle by The Octagon. In the years following the Central Otago goldrush of the 1860s Dunedin grew rapidly, with much of the growth being centred on Princes Street. The Exchange, on Princes Street 400 metres south of The Octagon, was the original financial heart of the city, but the CBD 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.

The Exchange, now several hundred metres inland from the edge of the Otago Harbour, was the site of the original landing place of 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, now diverted underground.^[1]

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. This 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. Today, the site of the Exchange building is the location of John Wickliffe House and John Wickliffe Plaza, both 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 late 19th century building regarded (by dint of its construction methods) as New Zealand's first skyscraper.^[2]

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.

Beyond The Exchange lie further retail shops and some small light industrial works, and the Oval, a large recreation reserve containing cricket and football pitches.

References