Eden Valley, New Zealand

Eden Valley
Location in Auckland
Basic information
Local authority	Auckland Council
Surrounds
North	Eden Terrace
Northeast	Mount Eden
East	Balmoral, Greenwoods Corner
Southeast	Three Kings
South	Three Kings, Mount Roskill
Southwest	Sandringham
West	Mount Albert
Northwest	Kingsland

Eden Valley is an inner-city suburb of Auckland, the largest and most populous urban area in New Zealand. The suburb grew around Dominion Road, one of the Auckland’s main arterial routes. Eden Valley's commercial hub is made up of a collection of businesses, shops, and dining options that service the area. The eclectic collection of shop fronts and signage on Dominion Road has aptly been described as, "colour and chaos". The "colour and chaos" of the commercial hub is strongly contrasted by the surrounding residential area. Eden Valley is characterized by heritage buildings that house modern day businesses, a residential area that has a range of late Victorian, Edwardian and transitional bay villas, and basalt and scoria stone walls that give the area a long established feel.

Eden Valley is located 3.5 km south of the Auckland Central Business District (CBD). Dominion Road makes up the spine of Eden Valley; it runs south from Eden Terrace to Waikowhai – almost the length of the Auckland isthmus. Eden Valley itself has no definitive beginning or end, but generally runs from View Road to Ballantyne Square with the intersection of Valley Road and Dominion Road as its central axis from which the suburb radiates out. Maungawhau provides a navigational landmark to the east and Eden Park is located to the west. Dominion Road traverses some of Auckland’s early lava flows from volcanic Maungawhau and Te Tatua-a-Riukiuta; the undulations of the road clearly indicate the location of these flows.

Eden Valley, as a city suburb, originated as farmland before it was subdivided for residential use and commercial development followed. During the 1840s, John Walters, George Nicol and James Brown were early landowners of Eden Valley, holding substantial land for farming and quarrying stone.Auckland’s volcanic landscape was a blessing for the area; the fertile volcanic soil produced a variety of crops (wheat being extensively grown in the 1850s) and the volcanic stone proved to be a suitable material for road making.