Kingsland

Your Local: Kingsland
As I approached Kingsland I was suddenly hit by the acrid smell of coffee being roasted.
The odiferous beacon reminded me that I was entering a hub of café culture. Two of Auckland’s best-known coffee brands are headquartered here: Atomic operates a day-time café from its storefront. In a sparse, industrial space you can perch, read a free magazine and have light food with your coffee.
Roasted Addiqtion goes for a more bohemian feel, with creaking floorboards, tatty couches and dub on the stereo. A blackboard menu of brunch-type items will fill you up.
For more caffeine, try Perk Up, Deve, Crucial Traders, or head down the hill towards Morningside, where Café Barista cranks out the espressos.
Do Kingslanders ever sleep? They have lots of reasons not to: at night they have their pick of some top-rated restaurants, ranging from South and East Asian to French.
This classic shopping strip, with its ornate concrete Victorian buildings, services one of Auckland’s oldest and most densely settled working-class neighbourhoods.
Down the residential side streets gentrification has barely arrived. Oddly, however, Kingsland is Auckland’s only shopping centre that lacks a butcher, fishmonger and greengrocer.
The Fridge used to stock gourmet dry goods, but under its current owners is concentrating on sandwiches, pies and coffee (of course).
You can buy fluffy white bread at Kingsland’s two hot bread shops, Connon’s (2 New Bond Street, phone (09) 846 3299) and Kingsland Bakery (440 New North Road, phone (09) 846 6077).
I was curious to find out more about a suburb without food retailers, so I contacted Dr Ian Hunter, who lectures on entrepreneurship at the Auckland University’s business school.
He says Aucklanders (like most of the rest of the world) like to use large-format stores and their convenient parking.
So will the hospitality trade always rule in Kingsland? “Personally, I think not”, says Hunter. “When you look at village high streets such as those at Mt Eden, Titirangi, Remuera, even Onehunga of late, you see that village shopping is alive and well.
“Experience is the key word here, for basically the village offers what the mall never can—it has history, old-world charm, an aspect of romanticism, escapism, and solace all of its own. In essence, these characteristics are what the village is selling—not fish and chips and haircuts.”
I found a hint of solace in Kingsland. It does have a pub—though a very 21st century one. The Kingslander is a slick transformation of an old grain warehouse, complete with big-brewery branding, gastro pub menu and wide-screen TVs… but at least you can get a pint.
André Taber