Ponsonby is an inner-city Auckland suburb situated 2 kilometres west of the Auckland CBD in New Zealand’s North Island. The suburb is positioned along a ridge running north–south, which is followed by Ponsonby Road, the suburb’s main street.
Ponsonby, a largely upper-middle-class residential suburb, is now also renowned in Auckland for its dining and retail establishments – Ponsonby Road is lined with restaurants, cafes, art galleries, up-market stores, and nightclubs.
The Ponsonby suburb had a population of 5,730 people and 2,085 households in the 2018 New Zealand census.
Three Lamps Area
Ponsonby has an area known as Three Lamps, which is situated at the north end of the street. This name is taken from a lamppost from the nineteenth century.
There are other intersections in the UK named Three Lamps for the same purpose, including Crewe and Totterdown in Bristol, which may have inspired the derivation here. There was also a pub of the same name in Swansea, Wales, and one in Macau, China.
Ponsonby Road
Ponsonby Road, which runs the length of the ridge from the Karangahape Road intersection in the south to the Three Lamps intersection in the north, is the suburb’s main thoroughfare. Williamson Avenue, Richmond Road, and Franklin Road are the three major intersections along the route.
Local Schools
Marist School and Richmond Road School are primary schools, and St Paul’s College is a secondary school. Western Springs College, Auckland Girls’ Grammar School, and St Mary’s College are nearby secondary schools.