Northcote 1821 - 1964
In 2001 I spoke to this Society about the history of Birkenhead, and provided a timeline for the history of the area from 1790 to 1905. 1905 was when my great grandfather Charles Verran and family arrived in the Birkenhead area. I would now like to talk about the history of the Northcote area, at least in part because of another family connection. My mother arrived with her parents and siblings in Northcote in 1938, at 1 Seaview Avenue, and my grandfather was the headmaster at the local primary school until he transferred to Newton Central. He retired in Northcote and both he and my grandmother died there, my grandmother in 1969 and my grandfather in 1975.
The only published histories of Northcote are Judith Christmas' "A History of Northcote" (1983) and the not well produced "Northcote's Past", which is a collection of oral histories published by the Northcote Borough Council in 1982.
1821. Following Ngapuhi's defeat of Hauraki and Ngati Whatua at Panmure the whole Auckland area, including the North Shore, was abandoned. In the late 1830's Ngai Tai (part of the Hauraki confederation) returned to form kainga at both Northcote Point and North Head. Kawerau, which had largely been absorbed into Hauraki, returned to Kauri Point. Following the Mahurangi Purchase in 1841 Ngati Tai left Northcote Point.
1844. The New Zealand Company purchased large tracts of land in the Northcote area from the government with the view of setting up a settlement there. However, the cost of land in Auckland was too expensive for the Company and in 1847 it was able to sell the land back to the government. Part of that land went to the Catholic Church to finance a church school at Awataha, particularly for Maori from other parts of the North Island. I have also spoken to this Society on this.
20 July 1860. St John the Baptist Anglican Church held its first service at Stokes Point. The area was renamed Northcote from 1880. The Anglicans also had a parish cemetery at the top of Pupuke Road, next to the Catholic parish cemetery.
1868. The North Shore Road Board commenced operations to manage local roading and facilities. It was centered mainly on Northcote as that was where the population was.
October 1873. The first school was opened on a part time basis at the Northcote Vicarage. From 1877 this became a full time state school and from 1878 was based in Kauri Glen Road. Birkenhead area pupils also attended this school until 1913. The Northcote Primary School opened on its current site in 1918.
21 June 1878. On this day a sulphur works was opened at what became known as Sulphur Beach, now the site of the Harbour Bridge approaches. It included a 350 feet long wharf, a condensing chamber, a 40 feet high chimney, a laboratory, a chamber 20 feet by 15 feet by 25 feet high, and 2 retorts 21 inch in diameter and 12 feet long. The complex included 2 feet 3 inch thick brick walls. It processed a half ton of crude ore from leased land at Whale Island in the Bay of Plenty. However, there was insufficient ore available, the works collapsed and the bricks were reused elsewhere.
1880's. The new Chelsea sugar works meant that Birkenhead suddenly had more population than Northcote. In 1881 the Northcote wharf was upgraded, new steps and a waiting room added in 1888, further upgrades made in 1892 and in 1905 a totally new wharf recognised the increasing useage of the ferry wharf.
1886. The population of Northcote had already begun to spread out from the wharf area. In that year there were 139 people around the hotel and shops near the wharf itself, another 44 half way up the point, 52 around the Gladstone Road area and 13 around Bartley Terrace. The Gladstone Hall was built in the 1880's as a community hall, and was eventually purchased by the Catholic Church in 1916 for ₤500 to form the basis of St Marys.
Population trends. From 1891 to 1901 the population of the Northcote area increased by 88%. From 1901 to 1907 it increased by another 100%. By 1898 proposals for a separate Northcote Borough were being made to the Waitemata County, and this was achieved in 1908. By 1925 the Borough population was 2,400, but the rate of expansion slowed down to 2,540 in 1931. It should be noted that further physical expansion to the north was limited by the Catholic and Auckland Hospital Board endowment lands. To the west Calliope Road (at the foot of the rise in Onewa Road and later renamed Wernham Place in the 1960's after a local headmaster) was the end of the bus route operated by the Waitemata Bus Company. People then had to walk up the hill to visit the Highbury shops or the Methodist Church.
Oral histories note the large number of British immigrants coming to settle in the Northcote area in the 1920's, and this was echoed in the 1950's and onwards. Development in the 1950's was greatly assisted by the sale of Catholic and Hospital Board land and by 1958 the population of Northcote Borough was 3,920. In 1977 it was 9,950.
Local schools. I have already noted Northcote Primary School. Northcote College dates from 1947 and Northcote Intermediate from 1957. St Peters or Hato Petera dates from 1928 and the Catholic Convent on Onewa Road from 1933. Onepoto Primary dates from 1961 and North Shore Teacher's College from 1966.
The bridge. The North Shore was dramatically altered by the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge on 30 May 1959. Immediate consequences were the opening of the Northcote Shopping Centre on 19 June 1959, Queen Street in Northcote went from being the main road to the Northcote ferry to a minor road to the houses on the point and Onewa Road went from being a link road between Northcote and Birkenhead to one of the main access points to the bridge. There was also a dramatic upgrade of the shops in Takapuna at the same time.
David Verran
The only published histories of Northcote are Judith Christmas' "A History of Northcote" (1983) and the not well produced "Northcote's Past", which is a collection of oral histories published by the Northcote Borough Council in 1982.
1821. Following Ngapuhi's defeat of Hauraki and Ngati Whatua at Panmure the whole Auckland area, including the North Shore, was abandoned. In the late 1830's Ngai Tai (part of the Hauraki confederation) returned to form kainga at both Northcote Point and North Head. Kawerau, which had largely been absorbed into Hauraki, returned to Kauri Point. Following the Mahurangi Purchase in 1841 Ngati Tai left Northcote Point.
1844. The New Zealand Company purchased large tracts of land in the Northcote area from the government with the view of setting up a settlement there. However, the cost of land in Auckland was too expensive for the Company and in 1847 it was able to sell the land back to the government. Part of that land went to the Catholic Church to finance a church school at Awataha, particularly for Maori from other parts of the North Island. I have also spoken to this Society on this.
20 July 1860. St John the Baptist Anglican Church held its first service at Stokes Point. The area was renamed Northcote from 1880. The Anglicans also had a parish cemetery at the top of Pupuke Road, next to the Catholic parish cemetery.
1868. The North Shore Road Board commenced operations to manage local roading and facilities. It was centered mainly on Northcote as that was where the population was.
October 1873. The first school was opened on a part time basis at the Northcote Vicarage. From 1877 this became a full time state school and from 1878 was based in Kauri Glen Road. Birkenhead area pupils also attended this school until 1913. The Northcote Primary School opened on its current site in 1918.
21 June 1878. On this day a sulphur works was opened at what became known as Sulphur Beach, now the site of the Harbour Bridge approaches. It included a 350 feet long wharf, a condensing chamber, a 40 feet high chimney, a laboratory, a chamber 20 feet by 15 feet by 25 feet high, and 2 retorts 21 inch in diameter and 12 feet long. The complex included 2 feet 3 inch thick brick walls. It processed a half ton of crude ore from leased land at Whale Island in the Bay of Plenty. However, there was insufficient ore available, the works collapsed and the bricks were reused elsewhere.
1880's. The new Chelsea sugar works meant that Birkenhead suddenly had more population than Northcote. In 1881 the Northcote wharf was upgraded, new steps and a waiting room added in 1888, further upgrades made in 1892 and in 1905 a totally new wharf recognised the increasing useage of the ferry wharf.
1886. The population of Northcote had already begun to spread out from the wharf area. In that year there were 139 people around the hotel and shops near the wharf itself, another 44 half way up the point, 52 around the Gladstone Road area and 13 around Bartley Terrace. The Gladstone Hall was built in the 1880's as a community hall, and was eventually purchased by the Catholic Church in 1916 for ₤500 to form the basis of St Marys.
Population trends. From 1891 to 1901 the population of the Northcote area increased by 88%. From 1901 to 1907 it increased by another 100%. By 1898 proposals for a separate Northcote Borough were being made to the Waitemata County, and this was achieved in 1908. By 1925 the Borough population was 2,400, but the rate of expansion slowed down to 2,540 in 1931. It should be noted that further physical expansion to the north was limited by the Catholic and Auckland Hospital Board endowment lands. To the west Calliope Road (at the foot of the rise in Onewa Road and later renamed Wernham Place in the 1960's after a local headmaster) was the end of the bus route operated by the Waitemata Bus Company. People then had to walk up the hill to visit the Highbury shops or the Methodist Church.
Oral histories note the large number of British immigrants coming to settle in the Northcote area in the 1920's, and this was echoed in the 1950's and onwards. Development in the 1950's was greatly assisted by the sale of Catholic and Hospital Board land and by 1958 the population of Northcote Borough was 3,920. In 1977 it was 9,950.
Local schools. I have already noted Northcote Primary School. Northcote College dates from 1947 and Northcote Intermediate from 1957. St Peters or Hato Petera dates from 1928 and the Catholic Convent on Onewa Road from 1933. Onepoto Primary dates from 1961 and North Shore Teacher's College from 1966.
The bridge. The North Shore was dramatically altered by the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge on 30 May 1959. Immediate consequences were the opening of the Northcote Shopping Centre on 19 June 1959, Queen Street in Northcote went from being the main road to the Northcote ferry to a minor road to the houses on the point and Onewa Road went from being a link road between Northcote and Birkenhead to one of the main access points to the bridge. There was also a dramatic upgrade of the shops in Takapuna at the same time.
David Verran
