Auckland’s nonchalant, leather jacket-wearing sister neighbourhoods, are hip, rebellious and creative.
The Portland Public House | theportlandpublichouse.co.nz
Or just ‘The Portland’ to its mates, is the place to go for live music, open mic nights, quiz nights, cocktails and delicious pub grub! 463 New North Road, Kingsland
A swamped Eden
Kingsland’s most prominent landmark – and New Zealand’s largest stadium – Eden Park, springs from former swamplands formed atop 30,000-year-old lava caves created by Ōwairaka/ Mount Albert and Maungawhau/Mount Eden. The site would later become known as Cabbage Tree Swamp owing to the abundance of cabbage trees (obviously). In 1902, looking across the sprawling marshland from Kingsland Road, a young, visionary cricketer by the name of Harry Ryan thought it would be the ideal setting for a cricket ground – and so the first sporting tenant was the Kingsland cricket club. For the first few years of its existence, the spot could only be used during the summer months as it would flood to the point of becoming a lake during winter.
A walk through history
Today of course the surburbs are known for their ever-expanding offerings of eateries, bars, and breweries, alongside boutique stores, barbers, salons and tattoo studios, with many of these fashionable establishments residing in Kingsland’s historic buildings. Kingsland’s Heritage Trail allows visitors to learn of the suburb’s past via smartphone technology and plaques with QR codes affixed to iconic buildings and points of interest. It takes about 40 minutes to complete.
Don’t just take our word for it, London’s Time Out once ranked the area in the top 50 coolest neighbourhoods in the world.
A kingdom is born
In 1841, around 1,200 hectares of land was gifted to the government by Āpihai Te Kawau, rangatira of local tribe, Ngāti Whātua. Over the following years, land around the area began to be traded and a suburb began to take shape. Kingsland Road – formerly Cabbage Tree Swamp Road – was one of Auckland’s first roads, while the longer New North Road follows the route of an old Māori walking track that stretched to the Whau River. Kingsland’s first railway station was built in 1847, and the first tram from Auckland arrived in 1903, terminating at the Page Building near the present-day train station. Across the street, in 1914, Arthur Page and his brother Charles built the Portland Building – now home to Verve HQ, and the Portland Public House, one of Auckland’s coolest bars!
