Street life

File under: urbanism, Wellington

Yesterday's post about Woodward Street made me think about my favourite streets in Wellington. There are many ingredients that go into making a great street: architecture, microclimate, history, the people that frequent it. But, following my pedantic tendency to define things, what exactly is a street?

Wikipedia has a nice definition that captures the difference between a street and a road:

"A street is characterized by the degree and quality of street life it facilitates, whereas a road serves primarily as a through passage for road vehicles or (less frequently) pedestrians. Street performers, beggars, patrons of sidewalk cafés, peoplewatchers, and a diversity of other characters are habitual users of a street; the same people would not typically be found on a road."

In other words, while a road is a way between places, a street is a place in its own right: a place to be. But there's also a spatial component. A street, like a successful urban square, needs a sense of enclosure. A road is essentially one dimensional (a line on the map), but a street should be a three-dimensional volume, defined by near-continuous building frontages on both sides.



That immediately discounts obvious roads such as motorways and other arterial routes, but also disqualifies otherwise pleasant thoroughfares such as Oriental Parade. Many of the "streets" in "SoCo" also fail this test, and it's frustrating to see their continuing domination by car yards and big-box retail with setbacks and surface parking: these could become great streets in time, but this requires developers with more sense of urbanity than we've seen so far.

So, what are my favourites? Cuba Street is an obvious choice: in fact it's so obvious I'll have to pass it by. Courtenay Place is perhaps too wide and low to feel like a well-defined volume, and while Allen and Blair have nice proportions, they too suffer from the Courtenay Quarter's "Bridge and Tunnel" syndrome. Holland and Egmont streets have great potential, with their old brick warehouses, but don't have enough street life at the moment.

Lambton Quay has great spatial drama, enhanced by the curve of the old shoreline, but of course it's overrun with suits and chain stores. The council's proposed upgrades might go some way towards making it more pedestrian-friendly, and it may someday look like the great commercial street it deserves to be. Featherston Street is coming along rapidly, and Grey Street has some pleasant sections, but of the secondary streets around here, Woodward Street has the most going for it. On the other hand, Stephen makes a good claim for the oft-forgotten Maginnity Street.

The stretch of Willis Street between Manners and Dixon streets has some lovely features and some great little shops (House of Hank, Quoil, Starfish, Beckon). There are signs that it's bceoming livelier, but I await with anticipation (and a touch of trepidation) to see what the new apartment block and the DoC headquarters will do to the streetscape.

But I think I'm going to keep coming back to the Left Bank. It could benefit from a little tarting up, but in general I love the ramshackle look of the place, the variety of little businesses, and the transition from a sunny "villagey" atmosphere to dingy urban grime and graffiti. There's also a real sense of community among the shopkeepers here, and you'll often spot the hairdresser having coffee in Offbeat Originals or the jeweller hosing down the cobbles, while kids play cricket against a masking-tape wicket on the back door to Matterhorn.

If we're going to get a proper Asian foodcourt of the sort that Tze Ming Mok prefers, perhaps this would be the best place for it. Satay Kingdom's roti might not quite cut it, but with a couple more (licensed!) outlets, we could have a proper outdoor Food Alley.

So, what's your favourite street in Wellington?