61 John Street, Ponsonby, Auckland

Karen Spires' Website\n\nDidn't think there were any classic villa do-ups left? Look again. This square-front honey is on one of Ponsonby's most popular streets with a fully west-facing garden and large covered deck. Highly liveable as is, just take your time, plan your future dream home and add value in this desirable city fringe location. This three bedroom home with open-plan living has original features like mellow timber floors, fireplaces and high, board and batten ceilings. Step out to the deck for late evening sunshine and views out to the Waitakere Ranges. Check out your options - there's a large basement that's nearly head-height, rare tandem off-street parking, and a garage that's been semi-converted into a studio or games room. A sheltered rear garden needs a few green thumbs but the bones are good. You're a walk away from Ponsonby and Jervois Road's cafes and boutiques. Call up the architect; you're on your way to a home exactly as you want it. \n\nLand size: 304sqm more or less\nCV: $660,000 Land: $510,000 Improvements: $150,000\n\nViewing By Appointment only\n\nEmail Karen if you would like to be sent:\n- Recent sales in Ponsonby\n- LIM\n- A comprehensive property report which includes Title, CV, LIM, etc. \n\nIf you would like to receive Karen's weekly email newsletter, Karen Spires' Residential News, please email her. It's a great way to hear about new listings and keep up to date with the local property market.\n\nAbout Ponsonby \nIt is an inner-city suburb of Auckland City located 2 km west of the Auckland CBD, in the North Island of New Zealand. The suburb is oriented along a ridge running north-south, which is followed by the main street of the suburb, Ponsonby Road.\nA predominantly upper-middle class residential suburb, Ponsonby today is also known in Auckland for its dining and shopping establishments - many restaurants, cafes, art galleries, up-market shops and nightclubs are located along Ponsonby Road. Previously containing many rundown buildings, and having a somewhat 'colourful' reputation, the suburb has undergone extensive gentrification over the last two decades.\nThe Maori name for the ridge is Te Rimu Tahi ('The Lone Rimu Tree', referring to an old prominent tree formerly standing at what is now the intersection of Ponsonby Road and Karangahape Road).\n\nEtymology\nThe suburb was originally called Dedwood in 1845, after a farm in Shelly Beach Road. The name was changed to Ponsonby in 1873. There are various people who might have inspired the name:\nMajor-General Sir Henry Ponsonby (private secretary to Queen Victoria, 1870-1895) \nThe Honorable Ponsonby Peacock, a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council \nColonel Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby \nMajor-General Sir William Ponsonby \nPonsonby Peacock was living in what was by then already called Ponsonby Road (later renamed Jervois road when Vandeleur Road was renamed Ponsonby Road in the 1880s. This fact alone would make it somewhat unlikely that he would have been the namesake for the new suburb.\nThe fact that part of what is now Ponsonby Road was called Vandeleur Road provides some basis for a derivation from either of the two latter men, who both fought at Waterloo. Major-General Sir John Vandeleur was a Divisional Commander at Waterloo and Colonel Frederick Ponsonby was a regimental commander under him. Neither Frederick Ponsonby or Vandeleur came to New Zealand but they are considered the most likely people the streets and the suburb were named after.\n\nHistory\n Iconic suburb\nOriginally a suburb for wealthy Aucklanders who favoured the harbour views available from the ridgeline, later residential subdivision off the main street began in the 1860s, with comparatively small lot sizes, and an influx of working people and their families. Many historic buildings, from shops to churches, were built in this time of the late 19th century, as was a tramline along Ponsonby Road. Ponsonby was amalgamated with Auckland City in 1882.\nIn the 1950s and 60s a combination of people moving to new outer suburbs, Auckland City Council policy of slum clearances and the construction of the motorway through Freemans Bay, led to plummeting rents and a drastic downturn in the economic fortunes of the area directly west of the CBD. In the 1970s, artists, bohemians, gays and lesbians, and Polynesian migrant workers and their families moved into the area, attracted by the low rents. The presence of so many 'creative types' created a distinct culture in the area, with which the area is still identified in the popular imagination of Auckland.\nHowever, beginning in the 1980s and reflective of urbanisation patterns in other Western cities, processes of gentrification and ethnic transition took place in the area (with Pakeha replacing Polynesians) that dramatically altered the suburb by the late-1990s, as described in the Ian Middleton novel Mr Ponsonby. Into the 2000s, Ponsonby is widely perceived of as a spatial centre of Auckland's so-called creative class of professionals working in the better-paid professions, as well as the culture industry. It is also seen as a place of consumption of up-market consumer goods (particularly clothing) and dining and drinking experiences for the city's upper-middle classes.\nAfter a number of traffic accidents (including one death) during the 2000s along Ponsonby Road, which is both an important traffic arterial and a favourite nightspot, the main road was changed into a 40km/h zone in 2009. \n\n\n