‘Regretful sale’: Historic home has to move for second Wellington tunnel

Thursday, 20 November 2025

Historic working man’s cottage at 19 Paterson Street, which is located next to the Mount Victoria tunnel has to be moved or demolished to make way for a proposed second tunnel.

A 155-year-old worker’s cottage, in the way of the proposed second Mt Victoria tunnel, needs a hero to save it.

Ettrick Cottage at 19 Paterson St is one of the original worker’s cottages from the early 1870s - one of the last surviving examples. And it has to go to make way for a second Mt Victoria tunnel.

Rhys Lovering inherited the home from his father who had bought it. It had been one of the first houses on Austin St before it was relocated to Paterson St where it has been first a family home then a rental property.

Now, if it is not to be demolished, it will have to be moved again.

READ MORE OF DEBORAH MORRIS’ JOURNALISM

The three-bedroom, one-bathroom cottage is in the path of the proposed tunnel and sitting on NZTA land.

Ettrick Cottage in Austin St in the 1960s, before it was moved to Paterson St.

Listed for sale on Tuesday, it already has more than 2000 views and is up for sale for a stunningly reasonable $40,000.

The catch is you have to move it yourself.

Lovering said he had always known that the land would eventually be used by NZTA but he had hoped for a reprieve.

Now, the last tenants have moved out and Lovering said he could not rent it except on a month to month basis which no-one was interested in. So he had to make the decision to sell it.

Samuel Atkins with his family outside the Ettrick Cottage at Austin St, Mt Victoria. The Atkins family lived in the cottage until about 1955.

“It could be a mini Grand Design if someone was willing to move it over the hill (to Wairarapa) or up the coast,” he said.

He has had some interest with two viewings come up and was hoping someone would come forward to save the little house.

The single-storey, picturesque double-bay villa, has an entrance verandah between the bays. The gable ends have finials and decorative bargeboards, and there is a simple valance under the verandah eaves.

The houses and the land alongside the Mt Vic tunnel are either owned already by NZTA or need to be acquired for the proposed second tunnel.

The listing says it was built of heart rimu with a corrugated iron roof. Ettrick Cottage was sold by its builder-owner, Mr Storey, to Samuel Atkins and it remained in the Atkins family for 81 years. It was moved 800 metres from Austin St to Paterson Street in 1994.

Ettrick Cottage has architectural value as a rare example of a typical 1870s worker’s cottage and is one of the oldest surviving houses in Mt Victoria. It has a Category 2 Historic Place listing with Heritage NZ.

“The cottage must be relocated to make way for the proposed Mt Victoria tunnel expansion. It currently sits on leasehold land owned by NZTA. The land is not part of the sale, however interested parties may be able to take the lease over on a short-term basis if interested,” the Trade Me ad says.

The cottage has three bedrooms (or two plus separate dining), an open plan lounge and kitchen, a sunroom/study with external access and a bathroom with separate toilet. Polished parquet floors have protected the original rimu flooring underneath for 20+ years and there is carpet in one of the bedrooms.

Artist’s impression of what the second Mt Vic Tunnel will look like

It has a heat pump, two gas fireplaces, gas hot water, gas stove, electric oven and a bathroom heater.

“The purchaser will need to arrange and pay for the removal of the cottage. Regretful sale but we'd love someone to rescue her and ensure she stands proudly on another site for the next 150 years.”

This week NZTA released its full plans for the city, including two new tunnels, a new underpass, and a complete overhaul of the road around the Basin Reserve that will, for a large part, become a two-way road.

The second Mt Victoria tunnel will fall to the north of the existing one, where Paterson St is. It would also affect “some” Town Belt land.

Transport Minister Chris Bishop said earlier in the week that 176 properties potentially needed to be fully or partly acquired, and 146 properties on top of that to enable the construction where below ground works are needed.

NZTA started buying properties along the planned route in 1966 and already owns many homes along the affected sections of Paterson St, Austin St, Ellice St and Kent Tce in Mt Victoria, as well as Wellington Rd in Hataitai.

In October letters were sent to 200 “directly affected property owners” advising them of plans. These were people whose properties would be acquired by NZTA for the project or otherwise affected, such as having a tunnel dug beneath them.

The investment case of the Government, via NZTA, has $2.9 billion to $3.8b earmarked to “design, consent and construct” second Mt Victoria and Terrace tunnels, three lanes on Vivian St, three lanes on the western end of Karo Drive, road changes around the Basin Reserve and widening Ruahine St and Wellington Rd on the road to the airport in the eastern suburbs.