History
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.
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.
The inner city of Auckland became rundown starting in the 1950s, and the low rents in places like Grey Lynn and Ponsonby attracted students and immigrant workers from the Pacific Islands. Grey Lynn developed a Polynesian flavour. Although in recent years this has greatly diminished, there are still a large number of Tongan and Samoan churches in the area.
Many of the homes in Grey Lynn were renovated beginning in the 1990s and housing prices increased. Lower-end retail enterprises have gradually been replaced with major corporate projects while the area experienced a level of gentrification. The influx of middle-class people has resulted in a reduction of student flats and the slow but steady displacement of Polynesian families. A number of recent housing developments in the suburb have attracted controversy due to their contribution to an increase in population density.
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