Khyber Pass Road Explained

Khyber Pass Road
Length Km:1.6
Postal Code:1023
Location:Newton, Grafton and Newmarket, New Zealand
Coordinates:-36.8657°N 174.7695°W
Direction A:West
Terminus A:Symonds Street
Direction B:East
Terminus B:Broadway

Khyber Pass Road is a street in the Auckland City Centre, New Zealand, connecting Upper Symonds Street to Broadway in Newmarket. The road is intersected by both the Western Line and the Auckland Southern Motorway.

History

Khyber Pass began life as a dirt track, during the early settlement of Auckland in the 1840s.[1] As the road was seen as a dangerous frontier, it was named after the Khyber Pass in modern-day Pakistan, which at the time was glamorised as the frontier of British India.[2] [3] The road, along with Great South Road, was a part of the route used by soldiers travelling south during the Invasion of the Waikato in the 1860s.[4] The spelling Kyber Pass was commonly used, up until the early 1940s.[5] [6]

The part of the road close to Newmarket was known as Hobson's Bridge, referring to an old wooden bridge that existed on modern-day Davis Crescent, which crossed Hobson's Creek, a former waterway.[7] The road was the southern border of the township of Auckland in 1852, so that an ordinance stopping loose cattle could be applied to a larger area.[8] [9]

During the late 1850s and 1860s, the land adjacent to Khyber Pass was subdivided and sold as suburban housing, including sections such as the Kyber Pass Village[10] [11] and Kyber Pass Estate.[12] [13]

The area became a centre for brewers in the mid-19th century, due to the presence of a natural spring.[4] [14] The Captain Cook Inn opened by Thomas Hancock on the road in 1859. Originally brewing beer just for the tavern, by 1862 the brewery had become a commercial venture for Hancock.[14] Richard Seccombe opened a brewery opposite the Inn in 1861 called the Great Northern Brewery, later known as Lion Brewery.[14]

In 1872, the Auckland City Council purchased land on Khyber Pass, where water reservoirs and pumping stations were established.[15]

The Captain Cook Inn was demolished in 1968.[14] The last brewery site on the road was the Lion Brewery, which sold its premises in 2008, and was later redeveloped as a satellite campus of the University of Auckland.[4] [14]

Notable locations

Notes and References

  1. News: Reminiscence of Early Days in Auckland . G. Eliot . Eliott . Evening Post. XLIV. 13. 3 December 1892. 1 (supplement) . Papers Past.
  2. Web site: A Bellicose Lot . Jack . Sulzberger . . 1991 . 25 February 2023.
  3. Web site: Development - Roads . A. H. . McLintock . 1966 . An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand . 25 February 2023.
  4. 76-77.
  5. News: Bant It! . Manawatu Times. 68. 265. 8 November 1943. 6 . Papers Past.
  6. News: Social Notes . Waikato Times. 126. 21128. 1 June 1940. 17 (supplement) . Papers Past.
  7. News: Ask Phoebe: Dedwood a stage in Ponsonby's history . . 24 January 2011 . 25 February 2023.
  8. News: Proclamation. . Daily Southern Cross. IX. 554. 19 October 1852. 3 . Papers Past.
  9. News: The Southern Cross. Friday, May 27, 1853. . Daily Southern Cross. X. 617. 27 May 1853. 2 . Papers Past.
  10. News: Kyber Pass Village, Kyber Pass Road . Daily Southern Cross. XVI. 1214. 22 April 1859. 1 . Papers Past.
  11. Web site: Kyber Pass village, Kyber Pass Road, 49 village allotments . Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections . 25 February 2023.
  12. News: Kyber Pass Estate . The New Zealand Herald. II. 420. 18 March 1865. 2 . Papers Past.
  13. Web site: Kyber Pass estate, comprising 120 choice building allotments. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections . 25 February 2023.
  14. News: Brewery looks back on 140 years . Fiona. Goodall. Western Leader. . 20 August 2009 . 25 February 2023.
  15. Web site: Auckland's Water Service Reservoirs . . 23 February 2023.
  16. News: Enter the station here, here, here ... or here. 25 July 2010. 9 April 2010. The New Zealand Herald. Mathew. Dearnaley.
  17. Web site: St David's memorial church . Ministry for Culture and Heritage . 22 October 2021 . 26 February 2023.
  18. Web site: St David's Presbyterian Church . St David's Presbyterian Church . https://web.archive.org/web/20210208023422/https://www.saintdavids.org.nz/ . 8 February 2021.
  19. News: Central Auckland church saved from demolition reopens to public . Corazon . Miller . 27 December 2023 . 1 News . 30 January 2024.
  20. O'Neill . J. C. . The History of the Work of the Christian Brothers in New Zealand . Unpublished thesis – DipEd . University of Auckland . 1968. 102.
  21. News: Auckland University thinks big with wind tunnel testing . . Anne . Gibson. 15 July 2016 . 25 February 2023.