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Suburb:Aro Valley
City: Wellington
Island: North Island
Surrounded by:

 - to the north

 - to the east

 - to the south

 - to the west


Kelburn

Te Aro

Brooklyn

Mitchelltown, Taitville



The Aro Valley forms a small inner-city suburb of Wellington in New Zealand .


Geography

The Aro Valley runs between the hills of Brooklyn to the south and of Kelburn to the north. By some reckonings it includes the side-valley of Mitchelltown.

The Valley comprises the bed of the Waimapihi Stream (now built over). Aro Street runs through the whole valley; major side-streets include Devon Street, Epuni Street, Adams Terrace and Mitchelltown's Holloway Road.


History


First developed by settler Wellingtonians as a working-class residential suburb in the late 19th century, the Aro Valley featured small, narrow sections with closely-built wooden or corrugated-iron houses. It gained a reputation for political radicalism and for shady extra-legal dealings.

Gentrification affected the Aro Valley from the 1970s, boosted by Urban Renewal Planning (the Comprehensive Urban Renewal Area or CURA) after the rejection of a proposal to turn the valley into a main arterial road route: it became a desirable suburb, seen as close to the centre of Wellington and boasting notable community spirit.


Sociology

The Valley also adjoins parts of Victoria University (mainly to the north), and a large number of Valley residents study there or at Massey University to the east. Despite the 'yuppification' of the suburb, it keeps its reputation as a home to politico-social radicals. Politically, it has become a stronghold of the Green Party .


Prominent features

  • Aro Park (site of the former Matauranga School )

  • Aro Valley Community Centre (complex with public hall and pre-school)

  • William Booth Memorial College (formerly a Salvation Army officer-training establishment)

  • Mickey Mouse Motors (as featured in '' Goodbye Pork Pie '')

  • Mitchelltown War Memorial (at the top of Aro Street)



EXTERNAL LINKS