Auckland’s premier retail precinct sits in the shadow of Aotearoa’s most fashionable boutiques and the looming ancestral spectacle that is Maungawhau…
Standing Proud
The neighbourhood was originally known as Te Tī Tūtahi – meaning the ‘sacred cabbage tree standing alone’. This was a reference to a cabbage tree that grew from the corner of present-day Mortimer Pass and Broadway. Considered a danger to the passing public, the tree was chopped down in the early 1900s, but shoots from what by then had become a well-known landmark were saved by a local businessman and farmer Alfred Buckland were saved and now populate the trees of Lumsden Green.
Heritage
Alfred Buckland was the head of the Buckland Family who, in 1862, built Newmarket’s historic Carpenter Gothic-style Highwic House. Over the following two decades, the home expanded dramatically to accommodate the family’s growing wealth and size – the final tally was 21 kids! Until the late 1970s, the home was continuously occupied by Buckland descendants and now serves as a museum-like experience kitted out with furnishings, items and artworks from the original period (and can also be hired for events like weddings).
The Newmarket Heritage Walk calls at both Highwic and Lumsden Green, as well as the neighbourhood’s many artworks and transformed industrial buildings.
Rising from Industry
Newmarket was once an industrial, manufacturing, and livestock centre, home to the likes of cattle yards, Chinese market gardens, breweries, bakers, and sawmills. By the end of the 19th century, a horse-drawn tram system was ferrying around 2,000 passengers per week to the area, and electric trams soon followed. New Zealand’s first 50-metre pool opened in 1940 (hosting the Empire Games swimming event in 1950), and in 1965, the Newmarket viaduct was completed – the largest in Aotearoa.
Designer Paradise
Boasting Broadway and a plethora of lanes bulging with boutiques, Newmarket is truly the nation’s designer destination. More than 600 stores populate the shimmering streets, including premier labels like Balenciaga, Gucci, and Karen Walker, not to mention one of the nation’s most luxurious malls, Westfield Newmarket, home to Aotearoa’s only David Jones department store and the incredible Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq which provides old-school fun for all the family by way of bowling, retro arcade games, virtual reality experiences, and more!
