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Mr Ward's Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street
In 1891, a remarkable map of Wellington was made by surveyor Thomas Ward. It recorded the footprint of every building, from Thorndon in the north and across the teeming, inner-city slums of Te Aro to Berhampore in the south.
Updated regularly over the next 10 years, it detailed hotels, theatres, oyster saloons, brothels, shops, stables, Parliament, the remnants of Māori kāinga, the Town Belt, the prisons, the ‘lunatic asylum’, the hospital and much more, in detail so particular that it went right down to the level of the street lights.
Mr Ward’s Map uses this giant map and historic images to tell marvellous stories about a vital capital city, its neighbourhoods and its people at the turn of the twentieth century.
Updated regularly over the next 10 years, it detailed hotels, theatres, oyster saloons, brothels, shops, stables, Parliament, the remnants of Māori kāinga, the Town Belt, the prisons, the ‘lunatic asylum’, the hospital and much more, in detail so particular that it went right down to the level of the street lights.
Mr Ward’s Map uses this giant map and historic images to tell marvellous stories about a vital capital city, its neighbourhoods and its people at the turn of the twentieth century.
560 pages, Hardcover
Published November 13, 2025
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January 31, 2026
This is a superb book.
In 1891, surveyor and engineer Thomas Ward produced a detailed map of the city of Wellington for the Wellington City Council. The map was based on the 1100 town acres originally drawn by the New Zealand Company in 1840, and it recorded the exact footprint of every building in the city, including garden sheds, stables and outhouses. Ward recorded the number of rooms and stories, and what the walls and roofs were made of.
The map was constantly updated during the 1890s with additions to buildings being drawn in by hand and demolished buildings being erased from the maps and it is the later editions of the maps which are used in the book so these changes can be seen. The map covered a total of 88 sheets and Elizabeth Cox structures her book around these sheets, with most chapters covering two sheets.
Each chapter is lavishly illustrated with not only a reproduction of that section of the map, but also with other images such as photographs, drawings, paintings, cartoons, and architectural plans. Each chapter focuses on the people and places who lived in that section of the map during the 1890s and Cox presents the history of the place and time in such an accessible and interesting way that you almost feel like you are there.
The result is an incredible book that is not only a geographical story of the growth of the city, but also an absolutely fascinating historical account of the lives of the people living in Wellington at the time. Cox uses a number of sources including quotes from both fiction (Katherine Mansfield) and personal memoirs of people who lived in Wellington during those years, as well as more traditional historical resources, and spins them all into an utterly readable and absorbing history.
While most of the people mentioned by name are the movers and shakers of Wellington society of the time, Cox has also made an effort to include those voices which are often forgotten in the historical record - women, Māori and non-European immigrants. The sheets of the map itself move from the wealthy areas of Thorndon and the Terrace to the slums of the Aro Valley and Newtown.
The growing pains of the city, the impact of new technology, the effect of colonisation on Māori, the social mores and leisure activities of the time, work and commerce, transport, sickness, health, and welfare, all these and more are illustrated in depth by the distribution of buildings on the map.
This is an absolutely fabulous book about Wellington at the turn of the 19th century. It is beautifully produced and is a book I will treasure forever.
In 1891, surveyor and engineer Thomas Ward produced a detailed map of the city of Wellington for the Wellington City Council. The map was based on the 1100 town acres originally drawn by the New Zealand Company in 1840, and it recorded the exact footprint of every building in the city, including garden sheds, stables and outhouses. Ward recorded the number of rooms and stories, and what the walls and roofs were made of.
The map was constantly updated during the 1890s with additions to buildings being drawn in by hand and demolished buildings being erased from the maps and it is the later editions of the maps which are used in the book so these changes can be seen. The map covered a total of 88 sheets and Elizabeth Cox structures her book around these sheets, with most chapters covering two sheets.
Each chapter is lavishly illustrated with not only a reproduction of that section of the map, but also with other images such as photographs, drawings, paintings, cartoons, and architectural plans. Each chapter focuses on the people and places who lived in that section of the map during the 1890s and Cox presents the history of the place and time in such an accessible and interesting way that you almost feel like you are there.
The result is an incredible book that is not only a geographical story of the growth of the city, but also an absolutely fascinating historical account of the lives of the people living in Wellington at the time. Cox uses a number of sources including quotes from both fiction (Katherine Mansfield) and personal memoirs of people who lived in Wellington during those years, as well as more traditional historical resources, and spins them all into an utterly readable and absorbing history.
While most of the people mentioned by name are the movers and shakers of Wellington society of the time, Cox has also made an effort to include those voices which are often forgotten in the historical record - women, Māori and non-European immigrants. The sheets of the map itself move from the wealthy areas of Thorndon and the Terrace to the slums of the Aro Valley and Newtown.
The growing pains of the city, the impact of new technology, the effect of colonisation on Māori, the social mores and leisure activities of the time, work and commerce, transport, sickness, health, and welfare, all these and more are illustrated in depth by the distribution of buildings on the map.
This is an absolutely fabulous book about Wellington at the turn of the 19th century. It is beautifully produced and is a book I will treasure forever.
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