Mt Victoria’s street names vary in origin but all reflect some aspect of the city or suburb’s history. Even the smallest streets – such as the three featured here - have interesting stories behind them, as Joanna Newman explains. 

Hood Street (off Roxburgh) had its name changed in 1925 to commemorate the visit of HMS ‘Hood’ in 1924.  Thousands of people took the opportunity to inspect the ‘Hood’, which was the largest battle cruiser in the world (and later sunk by enemy action in World War II). One can imagine that many might have viewed it from the cliff edge of Mount Victoria around what became Hood Street.

Moncrieff Street was named by the developer who constructed it on the large property on the corner of Elizabeth and Brougham Streets. He named it after Lieutenant John Moncrieff, one of the two early New Zealand aviators who attempted the first trans-Tasman flight from Sydney to Wellington.  All of New Zealand awaited their arrival and, on January 10th, 1928 there was great excitement in Wellington. They were due to arrive at Trentham around 6pm or 7pm – but the aircraft, with its two pilots, never arrived and no trace of them was ever found.

Lipman and Levy Streets recognise an early Wellington entrepreneur and philanthropist who died in 1880. But it’s not only the street names which keep his memory alive. The money he made – that is, had manufactured – is an international collectible these days.

Levy was an importer and manufacturer of boots and shoes, and supplier of leather and grindery. When copper coins were in short supply, the Government allowed businesses to issue their own penny and half-penny coins, and Lipman Levy was one who manufactured token coins. 

Lipman Levy owned two town acres between Kent Terrace and Brougham Streets, including what is now the site of the Embassy Theatre. In the 1860s and 1870s much of his estate comprised an  ornamental garden, complete with a pair of storks. The story goes that, on one occasion, a stork mistook a small nose poked through the palings for an edible morsel - with painful consequences.