Drawn and quartered

File under: maps, urbanism, tourism, Wellington

Some time ago, Positively Wellington Tourism decided to divide downtown Wellington into four "quarters" so that they could promote the distinctive qualities of different parts of the central city. They used maps of these quarters to arrange guides to art, fashion and other attractions, and it caught on with other organisations such as CaféNET, who divide up their hotspot maps the same way.

But times have changed, and so has the city, so it appears that they have redrawn the map of Wellington. We still have four quarters, but as this comparison shows (old above, new below), there is one new quarter, one has been annexed by its neighbours, and the others have undergone some subtle changes. Of course, this is all driven by tourism and somewhat arbitrary, but by looking at the changes we might learn something about perceptions of the city.

It always seemed odd that the Waterfront was excluded from the map of "downtown", and now it gets included as a quarter of its own, stretching from Whitmore St all the way to Freyberg beach. This makes sense on one level, but in a way I'm disappointed, since it reinforces the waterfront's separation from the city: I'd rather have seen Kumutoto and Queens Wharf included in Lambton, the Waitangi precinct with Courtenay and so forth, thus emphasising the city-to-waterfront connections. It also seems a little anomalous that it stretches inland to include Civic Square and the Rialto and Wellington Market buildings.

The former Willis quarter has disappeared entirely, losing Civic Square to the Waterfront while most of the rest is gobbled up by Lambton. It was always a bit of a poorly-defined "quarter", since it was mostly defined by not being part of the others and it was hard to claim that there was a distinctive "Willis" feeling. On the other hand, it doesn't feel right to see places like House of Hank now counted as part of the Lambton quarter.

Speaking of which, while Lambton gains most of Willis, it loses the little blocks between Whitmore and Bunny streets. This seems like strange timing given the recent development here (including the Holiday Inn and the VUW downtown campus), so I can only surmise that this is in expectation that this will become part of a better-defined "Capital Precinct", which is currently subject to an urban design exercise (74kB PDF).

The Cuba quarter only undergoes minor changes, with the exception of the blocks south of Dixon St between Willis and Victoria. These are no longer part of "downtown Wellington" at all, so according to this, I'm no longer a downtown resident. The horror! But I have to admit that with a few exceptions (such as Bar Bodega), there's not much in that sliver that feels particularly "Cuba". On the other hand, there's no acknowledgement that the very top of Cuba St is in the process of being amputated by the "bypass".

There are more significant changes in the Courtenay quarter. Waitangi Park gets ceded to the Waterfront, and there's some adjustments to the boundary with Mt Victoria, but the main change is that everything south of Vivian St (part of what I've been calling "SoCo") gets the boot. From a tourist's point of view I suppose there's very little of interest here, but I'd like to think that with some sensible urban design it could become a great little residential and retail precinct.

In the past, there have been occasional attempts to define a fifth "quarter", usually Thorndon. Leaving aside the fact that in Roman cuisine the phrase "Quinto Quarto" refers to offal, it makes sense to acknowledge that there are other neighbourhoods that aren't quite "downtown" but that nevertheless have some urban interest. Thorndon is adjacent to the CBD, but lacks any real coherence, since the chi-chi boutiques of Tinakori Rd have little in common with the brutalist towers of Molesworth St or the large-format furniture stores of Thorndon Quay. The "City Gateway" might eventually become a real city precinct, but for the moment it looks like we're stuck with an isolated office park. Newtown is certainly a bustling and fascinating suburb in its own right, but the long barren strip of Adelaide Rd keeps it separate from the city. But there's another contender.

The upcoming Big Look-See (a "behind the scenes" arts weekend) has a map showing locations of events, and it's based upon the new downtown map but with a special inset: for Petone. Of course! It's been on the gentrification wagon for years, and it now boasts some unique food outlets, good cafés and galleries and even a branch of Chow. It's also apparently full of jelly. So is Petone the new Thorndon?