Arch Hill

I read that staying in the Grey Lynn area or Ponsonby would be a good choice. Houses, or villas as they are called, in both districts were mostly built in the 1890s. Low rents in the 1950s attracted many immigrant workers who quickly made this neighbourhood their home. Now, these cute houses are being renovated and Grey Lynn has become a much sought after trendy place to live, 3 km from downtown Auckland.

We are staying on a very quiet, tree-lined street called Selbourne Street. No cobblestones here or fishermen going to work at 5 in the morning. It is extremely quiet, even with all the windows open.

The lady who owns the house has owned the house for 23 years and did some big renovations. Originally the houses didn’t have plumbing or hydro so a lot of work had to be done to modernize them.

Wikipedia has this to say about these house -

“Most of the houses in the area were built between the 1890s and the beginning of the First World War. They were constructed quickly and with little variation in layout. Their façades were differentiated by the application of mass-produced items; wooden fretwork, stained-glass panels, turned balusters and pressed tin (intended for interior ceilings – this "new" product occasionally appears on the gable ends of some villas). The most important feature was the bay window—hence the name "Bay Villa"—an important feature which marked the owner as middle class. The new inhabitants tended to be young couples, mostly white-collar workers such as clerks and office workers, teachers or skilled crafts-people.”

Most of these wooden houses have a similar floor plan with a central hallway. The parlour was located directly off the corridor, near the front entry. This room was reserved for entertaining guests. The bay window (when fitted to the protruding gable) was reserved for this room, and the best furniture and family treasures would be displayed here. In our house, this room has been made into the guest bedroom.

In most villas, the main bedroom was typically across the corridor from the parlour, facing the street. A second bedroom and any other bedrooms typically faced the side or back of the house. Our hostess and her sister occupy these two rooms.

The kitchen, pantry and scullery – were always at the rear of the house, away from the street. Typically, they were located in a lean-to, with a floor at ground level. The kitchen was for cooking and eating. Early villas would have had a coal range as the sole means of cooking. Later, a wetback provided water heating.

Larger villas sometimes had a separate dining room and a pantry for food storage. A common feature was a safe. This house has a dining and a living area at the back, as well as the kitchen and a deck.

Early villas did not have bathrooms. Long-drop toilets were located in separate buildings in the rear yard. Two bathrooms were added to this house.

The laundry was typically in a separate building behind the main house. Laundries would have contained timber (kauri) tubs and possibly a copper, for boiling water for the washing. There is a little renovated house at the back of the property that our hostess rents out. It may have been the original laundry building...

We took some photos of some of the houses on this street. Most of them have fretwork and stained glass, and a front veranda. They are very cute houses.Read more