A Buxton Garden in Wadestown, Wellington

By Janet Waite

Alfred William Buxton was a nurseryman and ‘colonial landscape gardener’; a garden landscaped by Buxton in the early 20th Century was considered a symbol of affluence. Janet Waite lives in a bungalow at 42 Wadestown Road, Wellington, with a garden designed by Buxton. In this blog, Janet shares some history of her house and garden.

The house is a well-built bungalow, designed by Frederick de Jersey Clere, built in 1916. It has had four owners, most of whom made significant contributions to New Zealand. It is in good condition; I have had architectural help from Philip Porritt to bring it up to reasonably modern standard.

The house is built on the grand scale, with a large master bedroom, a large guest room, a small bedroom for a child and a maid’s bedroom next to the kitchen. It has a formal dining room, sitting room, old-style kitchen with original features, the flour and sugar bins, and laundry. The local Home Guard met upstairs at the house during WW2.

The house was included in a Thorndon Walk brochure produced by the Onslow Historical Society, likely sometime in the 1980s. Judy Siers was involved in its production.

The house sits on two sections and the garden was designed in 1935 by New Zealand landscape designer, Alfred Buxton. The garden design has not been changed since this time and contains a puriri, several large kowhai, cabbage trees, a bush “grotto”, an oak, black beech and weeping elm, a rimu planted to commemorate Mary Fleming’s PhD and a kauri gifted to Sir Charles Fleming when he retired from the Royal Society; The Flemings were previous owners.

The garden is typical of Buxton’s work and retains his design with garden rooms, a rock garden and a retaining wall of rocks to create a flat lower lawn. The garden pool in the grotto was drained, being deemed dangerous for children.

The land was the first section bought in the immediate area, part of the Highland Park Estate Development, subdivided in 1913 from a farm of one hundred and fifty acres, owned by William Barnard Rhodes.

The first owner was Mr Morice, Assistant City Engineer. He designed and built the Orongorongo Water Reservoir. An Edinburgh University trained engineer who emigrated to New Zealand, he married late. He had one daughter, Isobel, who lived in Wadestown her entire life and told me many stories; she was my immediate neighbour. Isobel lived alone, never married, studied at London and Durham Universities and returned to new Zealand with a PhD. She worked for the DSIR, publishing primarily on the oils and fats of seeds, and she was proud to be related by marriage to Sir James Hector, The Government Scientist and explorer. I am sure he was an inspiration to her as she pursued her career in science. Her Grandfather was the Rev John Ross who started a school for local farmers’ sons in the Turakina district, which became Turakina Maori Girls’ College.

The second owner was Mr McMorran, Director General of Lands and Survey. He and his family lived in the house from about 1935 – 1948. The house had been let during the Depression for ten years and was in bad condition when they bought it. The McMorrans employed a Jewish emigre architect from Auckland to carry out major restoration work. The F de Jersey Clere footprint remains the same. The house still has many original features, including the maid’s bedroom, bell in the dining room and flour and sugar bins in the kitchen.

Sir Charles Fleming and family were residents from 1948 until 1993. He was a member of the Royal Society, a leader in the “Save the Manapouri Committee” and was the Director of the Geological Survey. His daughters, Robin, Mary and Jean, are writers, broadcasters, scientists and feminists of some note.

I write as the present house owner in the belief that the house and its garden have important historical value to the suburb and city.