Victorian Houses

It's Super Tuesday in the US, and we're looking online frequently to see what's happening with the primaries. It's Wednesday here in New Zealand and is both Ash Wednesday and a big national holiday, Waitangi Day. On February 6, 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, declaring New Zealand to be part of the British empire and also giving Maori rights to their land. The fact that the English and Maori versions of the treaty were significantly different has caused trouble ever since 1840.

But this blog post isn't about US politics, Ash Wednesday, or Waitangi Day. It's about one block of George Street in Dunedin. George Street is the main shopping street in Dunedin. It begins at the Octagon at the center of town and runs ten blocks north. The shopping peters out the further you get from the Octagon. We now live north of town, and when we go downtown from our new house on our bikes, we ride on George Street.

The block of George Street that is furthest from the Octagon is a mix of residential and commercial buildings, and every time I ride along it, I gawk at the houses. Most of them appear to be more than 100 years old. I've written before about villas, a particular style of 100-year-old houses that are common in Dunedin. As we ride our bikes into town, first there are several villas on both sides of the street. Here are the villas on the east side. Two of them have wonderful iron lace in totally different styles.

Just past the handful of villas is a row of six attached houses. I think they're charming, and a sign on the building says it was built in 1897.

Just past the row houses are two amazing big Victorian houses. The first one appears to be a residence and the second one is used for a business.

Then comes two charming little identical brick houses. I photographed one of them with yet one more big old house in the background.

The next three photos show the other side of the street, the west side. When we ride into town, that side of the street begins with a row of six villas. A little further on is a house with beautiful stained glass windows, and then another bunch of row houses that are now a hotel.

The funny thing is that I've never really been fond of Victorian architecture. When we first got to Dunedin I had a hard time appreciating the old houses. I think I was expecting it to look more like Europe. But now I'm growing quite fond of the Victorian style, and I get a lot of pleasure riding my bike along the last block of George Street.