Auckland CBD - History

History

The Auckland CBD started to become a defined (if slightly less extensive) area from early on, starting in the 1840s with the first European colonisation of the area. This was mainly due to the increasing concentration of businesses, and especially retail, along Queen Street, which still to this day forms the 'spine' of the area. In 1841, just one year after the European founding, the census counted approximately 2,000 people, with "mechanics" the largest group at 250, and other groups of note being 150 agricultural labourers, 100 shopkeepers, 100 domestic servants, and 125 "upper class members".

Initially the area also contained many manufacturing businesses, though these started to move to other areas later on, the flight becoming especially marked around the 1950s. A beginning exodus of retailers to suburban shopping malls was halted by increased construction of parking buildings and a concentration on specialty services and retail over the type of supermarket and mall shopping that was created in places like Pakuranga from 1965 onwards.

Residential numbers in the inner city (including the inner suburbs) were also declining in the 20th century from as early as the 1920s. In the two-mile zone surrounding the CBD, there were approximately 70,000 people in 1926, with only around 50,000 in 1966 - a change made even more marked by the development of the remainder of Auckland's population, which grew more than fourfold in the same timeframe. In the 1990s, only a token population of around 1,400 was still residing within the actual CBD, though this was to grow substantially with a boom of new apartment buildings around the turn of the millennium. Around 24,000 apartment units exist as of 2010.