The underpass below Mayoral Drive is mainly car-parking at present, but landscaped with ferns and adequately lit it would make an inviting entry into the underused park beyond. For city workers seeking a leafy retreat for lunch, the underpass gives level entry into the park from the square. This is possible now, but only by weaving through the council carpark, and along a narrow, dank path edged with uninviting link fencing. The other option is down steep, heavily shaded wooden steps off Mayoral Drive, or down the path halfway up the Queen St hill next to the White Lady brothel - which is marked by a faded sign and a warning notice: "Traps set for possums."
Council contractors are now repaving the crumbling pathways, and already it's looking more user-friendly than it did during my last wander through in the summer. Though why unfriendly black asphalt, instead of the more cheery red scoria original? The good news is, with a little titivation such as this Myers Park could become the wonderful asset Sir Arthur Myers dreamed of when he gave the valley to the city in 1913.
Sir Arthur, a former mayor of Auckland, successful businessman and MP, was a pioneer in the town planning movement and saw the park project as both slum clearance and civic beautification. C.J. Parr, fellow town planning crusader and mayor in 1915 when the park opened, described the area as "a veritable eyesore" which for many years had become "an unhealthy and noisome neighbourhood, filled with ancient and slumlike buildings".
Sir Arthur bought the land from 25 different owners, removed the buildings and, said Mayor Parr at the opening, "converted [it] into a park for the people of Auckland for all time".
Sir Arthur and his wife, Vera, also paid for the Myers Kindergarten building and the adjacent children's playground, both still going strong nearly a century on. So are the exotic palms and other planting, which appear to have survived unchanged over the years.
Acknowledging its uniqueness, the Historic Places Trust has listed the park and some adjacent buildings as Myers Park Historic Area. Originally the gully was the source of the notorious Horotiu Stream, which by the time it flowed down Queen St, was an open sewer.
The Waitemata Local Board has budgeted $50,000 for an assessment and signalled the priority will be to upgrade the playground and the fountain. It's also asking Auckland Transport, which runs the carpark, to consider transferring that to Auckland Parks so it can be removed.
All of which makes one fear the number of cooks getting involved in what should be a very simple task.
In 1913, I'm not sure whether early or late in the year, Mayor Parr formulated the park project and persuaded his predecessor to pay for it. Sir Arthur then went off and negotiated with 25 separate landowners, arranged to have all the tenants and properties shifted, and the wasteland landscaped and planted. In January 1915, it was officially opened.
From idea to completion in less than two years. All our present politicians have to do is dig up a carpark, lay a path and plant some greenery. What do you reckon. Six months? Two years? Ten?
