Unnamed reserve between Copeland and Witako Sts and Hall Crescent, Epuni, New Zealand

The persistence of this stubborn small reserve which continues to exist against all odds is something to admire. It is seemingly no more than a small oblong patch of (mown) grass. All surrounding houses have tiny backyards; some have chosen to make all or a part of their fencing wire, to give a sense of space, and to reveal to the world (or at least that minor fraction of it which cares to look) the tininess of their yards.

 Copeland St entryway

 Looking south-east

 Looking north-west

 Looking north-west

 External wall of outbuilding, on the north-east corner.

 Looking north-west

 Low fence and gate (with beware of the dog sign)

 Way through to Hall Crescent

North-western fence with inexplicable hole revealing piece of pipe, and double door gate (large enough to permit vehicle access, but a vehicle could not come into the reserve itself from the street entryways).

 Looking southeast

 One of the tiny backyards - with wire fence

 A backyard of a Copeland Street house, as seen from access way

This is the reserve across the road, which looks on the google map to be another internal reserve and probably was one at some stage. Now a large part of it is a driveway to two facilities:

 This very attractive brick house retains its gate entry into the space.

View of entry way across Copeland into the smaller reserve above.
All viewable on google maps here.

Reserve between Oxford Tce, Lincoln Ave, Roberts and Dyer Sts, Naenae, New Zealand

Naenae, in the Lower Hutt region of Wellington, was designed by the Austrian-New Zealander Ernst Plischke in the early 1940s. See Ian Bowman's paper 'Translating the New Old-World into the New New-World' for broad details on the plan (though Bowman is principally concerned with the redesigned commercial centre; he says little about the 'residential, industrial and sub-commercial areas' of Naenae except that they 'were implemented largely unchanged'). This particular visit to Naenae was largely to look at this internal reserve. But first, some context:

 

 Local colour - an underpass mural

I would invite you to have a look at the site in Google Maps via the link above. It strikes me that it is quite possible that this section of Oxford Terrace once featured a row of blocks with internal reserves within, which have since been filled with housing. This lane leads to a cluster of houses which may well be filling a former internal reserve space. (see below)

An example of the attractive small homes in this part of Naenae

Another lane way leading to housing. See above.

The entranceway to the internal reserve in question - from Lincoln Avenue.

Cat frozen in attack/retreat mode as seen from lane way. Probably people are unprecedented at this hour (7:30 am or so on a public holiday).

The end of the Lincoln Avenue lane way.

Trees at north-east corner of the triangular space. There are a number of mature trees and some adhoc play equipment (swings) in the reserve.

South-western end (it was reasonably early in the morning and the sun was still low, hence the variable light in these pictures.) Two residences have wire fences. All yards are very shallow.

Into the space looking towards Roberts Street from the Lincoln Ave side.

Looking north-west from the Oxford Terrace side.

I hope it is clear from this image (it's not from the google map) but this, the Oxford Terrace entry point, is oddly 'funnelled', that is, it's wider in the reserve than on the street, suggesting an element of a grander entranceway at this point than the other two entrances. Perhaps there was an idea to landscape or otherwise add a structure of some sort to this point of entry?

20 February 2014, Re: the theory on encroached IR space above: I have finally got my hands on Ben Schraeder's out-of-print and hard-to-find We Call It Home: A History of State Housing in New Zealand. Schraeder prints Ernst Pischke's original plan for Naenae on p. 169, and while the above reserve appears in the plan, there weren't any other internal reserves nearby in 1946. Which doesn't really explain why the property boundaries within the blocks are so strangely constructed - in a way, that fact just frames a different question.

As an aside, I did a quick search on Naenae in the Australian digitised newspapers and found only this from the Queensland newspaper The Worker, very interesting though only peripherally relevant to any study of IRs. Schraeder's book talks a lot about Plischke's vision for Naenae as a 'garden city' (pp. 170-1) though I feel personally he doesn't properly represent the nuances of the IR seeing it instead as a manifestation of Radburn and/or 'garden city ideas' which I personally don't feel it really is, though it has connections to both. Plischke's interest in San Marco Square, Venice, as a template for Naenae's community centre is similarly a fascinating notion although trying to make a case for the IR above as having any connection to this is drawing a long, long, long bow.

Derby Walkway, Porirua, New Zealand*

This reserve is part of public housing built as part of the Porirua public housing project of the early 1960s. The space is approximately 60 x 60 m with something like 16 residences around - all the homes are weatherboard.

Most houses face into reserve, only one residence has a gate (and that is overgrown with periwinkle, demonstrating lack of use). 

Vehicular access (for maintenance only) at one end, with a removable bollard.

One solitary tree in the space, some foliage at one side, corrugated iron fencing in the main, some wood fencing, some yards very visible from the reserve, one (western) house has verandah facing into reserve. Different uses of backyards but local agriculture seems prevalent, and the n/w corner seems to start to descend into a gully.

It is altogether quite delightful. 

Amusingly (?) one of my students, Ella, came to pick Andrew Mackenzie and I up from Leicester Street and asked some locals where the park was. They told her there was no park nearby. As Andrew pointed out, this might come down to definition of 'park'. Still, strange that when asked such a question, the idea that this space might be a park did not even enter their minds...!

*The reserve is not signposted, however, this pdf gives the name Derby Walkway. 

Interesting video of early days of Porirua as a 'city of tomorrow' here.