Karangahape Road

K Road runs along a ridge above the central city and was Auckland's main shopping street until the 1960s, when the Central Motorway Junction was driven through and cut it off from Queen Street and Newton, taking the through traffic and a large share of the trade with it. What followed is the usual sequence: rents collapsed, the street became a red-light and alternative district through the seventies and eighties, and artists, record shops, second-hand dealers, queer bars and small galleries filled the cheap space. It has kept that character longer than most such streets, though rising rents and the new rail station opening beneath it are pushing the usual way. The Edwardian shopfronts survive largely intact above the ground floors, which is worth looking up for. St Kevins Arcade, with its steps down to Myers Park, is the standard photograph.

History

The ridge was a Māori walking route, Te Ara o Karangahape, older than Queen Street, and the Karangahape Road District was formed on 5 October 1868 before joining the City of Auckland in 1882. From about 1900 to the early 1960s it was Auckland's busiest shopping street; in 1935 a mile of shopfronts was lit under the awnings as the "Great White Way", and in 1949 it got the first fluorescent street lights in New Zealand (Wikipedia, Karangahape Road).

What's there

• The Edwardian facades - intact above the shopfronts, worth looking up.
• St Kevins Arcade - and the steps down into Myers Park.
• The galleries and record shops - what filled the space after the motorway.
• The nightlife - bars and venues running late.

When to go

Evenings for the bars and venues; daytime for the galleries and shops, most of which open late morning. Any season.

What to expect

It is a working inner-city street with a visible street population and some rough edges at night, which is part of its character rather than a failing. Gentrification is changing it fast. Parking is difficult.

Nearby

Ponsonby is west; Queen Street and the city centre are downhill.

Key facts