More than a century of play at the Pirie Street reserve

More than a century of play at the Pirie Street reserve

The Pirie Street Reserve has been a playground for more than a hundred years, as Joanna Newman from the Mt Victoria Historical Society explains.

Today on the Pirie Street reserve near the bus tunnel there are climbing and hanging frames for the big boys and girls and for the littlies, shaded benches for the watchers, all on a beautiful, all-weather surface allowing year-round enjoyment.

The area’s use as a planned recreation area goes back 100 years to an announcement by the Council in December 1923 that the Pirie Street playground would be ready for children by Christmas. The public play area was much bigger then.  The main entrance was where it is now, but the ground ran between that point and upper Elizabeth Street. A portion was reserved for a special play area for children with ladders, chutes, swings, a ‘rock-a-bye’ and a sandpit like a miniature sand hill, “which the kiddies may climb and burrow into to their heart’s content”.

But not all activities were equal. For some time, playing of games on Council-owned land was prohibited on Sundays – though it was clearly not always observed, to the dismay of some.  In 1929, a resident complained to the Mayor:

“At the Pirie Street playing ground there is a notice stating the playing of games on Sunday is prohibited.  Up to within a few weeks ago this has been fairly well observed, but during the last few Sundays, in the mornings, football is in full swing up to noon.  Of course, there is perhaps nothing in the kicking of a ball around the ground, but when the players get into “scrums” and “rushes”, the excitement grows, and with it a torrent of blasphemy and filthy remarks which, on a quiet morning can be heard all over the neighbourhood, so that one can not sit in one’s garden without one’s ears being assailed with the verbal muck. . . . “

The area started to see more organised use for recreation with the construction of a pavilion for the Mt Victoria Croquet Club in 1930.  Then, in 1931, a playing area of about two acres was proposed by The Education Board of the District of Wellington for the proposed new Clyde Quay School.  Work for this was carried out under an Unemployment Scheme.

The grounds continued to be booked by many groups for events, however, from Girl Guides to Indian sports clubs.  One of the more interesting ones was by the Friends of the Soviet Union in 1935 for a Children’s Fete.  The programme for the day included sack, egg and spoon and skipping races, a baby show, performing dogs, a bran-tub (a lucky dip with items hidden in bran), a fortune teller and Punch and Judy.

In 1955, croquet gave way to bowling and the Council approved land to be taken for the Victoria Bowling Club and the Victoria Women’s Bowling Club, essentially privatising much of the original playing ground.  Bowling was still big and many city worthies were bowlers. 

The return, not so long ago, of the former Victoria Women’s Bowling Club area to community use as a garden and hall was a welcome development.