The Dark Underbelly of Mt Victoria

Note: this piece contains discussion of historical racism and misogyny with reference to some pretty nasty primary sources.

Upon leaving the public sector, one may suddenly find themselves free to interact with the public. Where the ivory towers of Lambon Quay keep so many Wellingtonians1 in a state of PSC-mandated disdain for ordinary people, there is a whole world to explore outside the lanyard-zone.

For me, this has meant spending some quality time in my adopted suburb of Matairangi (Mt Victoria). But if you look deeper than the Mount Vic Hub, the Embassy Theatre, Underworld Tavern, the Innermost Gardens and those olive tree-lined streets, you will find a primal battle between good and evil. According to the Mt Victoria Historical Society, Mt Vic’s history began in 1840, when white people arrived and coined the Te Reo Pākehā name. I’m gonna break with my neighbourhood powerbrokers when I say this but I do not believe that Mt Victoria was simply spake into existence by The New Zealand Company.

Matairangi, Whātaitai and Tangi te Keo aren’t simply words without meaning2. If the historical society, really thought “Mount Victoria’s heritage is… under threat”3, it might demonstrate a little bit of intellectual curiosity about the turf it has claimed as its own. Long before Edward Wakefield’s goons decided to arbitrarily rename this place in honour of an inbred genocidier who never even came here, it was understood in terms of its geographical features, not its poorly-constructed buildings. The hill Matairangi is the resting place of Whātaitai4, the taniwha that tried to follow his brother Ngake into the sea after he transformed Te Whanganui-a-Tara from a lake to a harbour. Matairangi was unfortunately stranded and his spirit turned into a bird, Te Keo, who flew to the summit.5

The funny thing about history though is that it keeps on going. Just as the story of Matairangi didn’t start in 1840, it didn’t end then either. Mt Victoria Historical Society might have a particular interest in hagiographies of landed gentry6 but there are also a bunch of ignominious, seedy, even paranormal stories in the suburb. Here are five of my favourites.

I promise that every dollar you donate to my Substack will go back into the Mt Vic economy

1930 - The Mt Vic Tunnel ghost

I’ll start with one most people probably already know. Before it was opened the following year, one of the labourers who was working on the construction of the Mt Vic Tunnel brutally murdered his pregnant girlfriend here. George Errol Coats (29) pushed Phyllis Avis Symons (17) into the tunnel’s earthworks where she was likely buried alive. The reason everyone honks their horns on the way through the tunnel is ostensibly to honour the ghost of Symons but I personally think she’s suffered enough.7

1908 and 2009 - Locals get pitchforks out

Soon after the decriminalisation of sex work in 2003, the Mt Victoria Residents Association (the militant wing of the Historical Society), had its worst fears confirmed: people were using the law change to have sex. They rallied to shut down Pirie Street’s Lovely Lily brothel in 2009 by contesting its resource consent.8 This came just a century after the last recorded instance of people having sex in the area when the New Zealand Truth directed its racist ire against a Chinese-run brothel on Adelaide Road.9

2023 - Treasure buried under grand old lady?!

Mt Vic has long been a hub for Wellington’s Greek community with award-winning olives and the gorgeous Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. One of its most famous sons, Emmanuel Papadopoulos made his fortune in nightclubs and restaurants, including El Matador. After he passed away, rumours started to swirl that he had left his fortune in gold under the foundations of his big-ass house at 105 Brougham Street. In 2023, its new owners had a rail system built and a hydraulic jacking system employed to search for the treasure. If they have managed to find it since them, they haven’t yet shared any with me.10

1996 - Barry Barclay protests outside NZ on Air Office

While the highest-profile activism in Mt Vic tends to be directed against making it liveable for poor people (e.g. the Melksham Towers in the 1970s), there is a pretty sick counter-example from the `90s. One of the greatest filmmakers from Aotearoa, Barry Barclay, camped outside New Zealand on Air in 1996 in the middle of Cambridge and Kent Terraces in protest against our racist broadcasting and funding systems. The event is chronicled in Graeme Tuckett’s documentary about Barclay.11

2010 - Man attacked by vampires

A few years before Mt Vic local Jemaine Clement would bring Wellingtonian vampires to the big screen, we had the real deal. In 2010, two men and a woman attacked another man and proceeded to drink his blood on Mt Vic. When asked why he did it, alleged creature of the night James Brooks said “Yeah, I bit a guy ... he hit on my missus.”12