Grey Lynn

Grey Lynn
Older villas in the south of the suburb
Location of Grey Lynn in Auckland
Basic information
Local authority	Auckland Council
Date established	1880s
Population	9,171(2006)
Postcode(s)	1021
Surrounds
North	Herne Bay
Northeast	Ponsonby
East	Newton
Southeast	Arch Hill, Kingsland
South	Morningside
Southwest	Western Springs
West	Point Chevalier
Northwest	Westmere

Grey Lynn is an inner residential suburb of Auckland City, New Zealand, located three kilometres to the west of the city centre. Originally a separate borough, Grey Lynn amalgamated with Auckland City in 1914.

Grey Lynn is centred on Grey Lynn Park, which was not part of the original subdivision of 1883, since the land was too steep and too wet for house construction. In 1914 the land was drained and levelled for playing fields. The park is home to the annual Grey Lynn Park Festival, which attracts around 100,000 visitors on the third Saturday in November.

The character of the area is often seen as "arty", and one of being a "traditional home to free-thinkers and anti-establishment types".

Grey Lynn is named for Sir George Grey (14 April 1812 – 19 September 1898), Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Cape Colony (South Africa), Premier of New Zealand, and, towards the end of his life, Member Of Parliament for Auckland West. Grey's presence as MP for the area was apparently widely appreciated since following his retirement from politics and death in 1898 the north western portion of the suburb of Newton was renamed Grey Lynn in his honour.

The original subdivision was 900 acres (3.6 km²), which is still the formal extent of Grey Lynn. Most of the houses were built between the 1880s and the beginning of the First World War. Very few of the houses have been completely replaced by new structures.

Williamson Avenue and Crummer Road are two of the major streets in Grey Lynn. James Williamson and Thomas Crummer were joint owners of a farm in the area. In 1883 Williamson and Crummer sold the property to the Auckland Agricultural Company. The Surrey Hills farm was subdivided into 272 building sections to form the neighbourhood between Surrey Crescent and the southern end of Ponsonby Road. Shops are located at the intersection of Great North Road and Williamson Avenue.

Grey Lynn's streets were largely laid out by the developers as straight roads (as opposed to the earlier farm roads such as Richmond Road which twists and turns following the curve of the landscape.) Several streets are named after early landowners; Williamson, Crummer, Mckelvie, Pollen, Prime etc. But there is a prevalence of cultural personages from Britain: Sir John Millais, Lord Elgin, Alfred Lord Leighton, Coleridge, the Earl of Beaconsfield, Dr Arnold, Dickens, Dryden etc. This was obviously intended to give an artistic ambience to the area.