The task of naming the area we now know as Napier, was given to Alfred Domett (1811-1887) - Resident Magistrate and Commissioner of Crown Lands.
The theme chosen by Domett for naming the town and streets was place names and British heroes associated with the Indian mutiny. When those were exhausted, he turned to well-known British literary figures and poets.
It is not surprising Domett used names such as Tennyson for street names, as he had a love of poetry. He published his own poems and was an intimate friend of British poet Robert Browning - who also had a street named after him.
One of Domett's claims to fame was that it was under his term as Premier of New Zealand in 1863 when he moved that the seat of government should be moved (from Auckland) closer to Cook Strait, which it was in 1865, to Wellington.
Not all streets had imaginative names or themes given to them in Napier. The road in the foreground was named White Road simply because the limestone placed on it gave a white appearance.
