Hamilton: Where James and Bond streets meet

Tuesday, 30 January 2024

Grahame Short has been a resident of the James and Bond Street area for many years, and says they were around before 007 was.

If you like your martini shaken, not stirred, and you rock a fitted suit, you may already know of a somewhat spy-themed intersection in Hamilton.

The meeting of James and Bond Streets recently drew an audience of about 900 likes, loves, and laughs on Facebook for its coincidence with the popular spy series.

Many wondered if it was pure coincidence, or if the Tron was indeed the spy city of the future.

Grahame Short, an ex-salesperson at Waikato Times, moved to number 7 in the area in the late 1990s.

Has he thought about the correlation with his street number?

“That has always been a big joke. But it was James St and Bond St long before 007 was ever around.”

John Turnbull wandered by the amusing intersection on a Tuesday in Hamilton.

So how did the streets ended up with these names?

Bond Street was named after a well-known figure community figure who ran the Waikato Times and was the mayor of Hamilton, says Hamilton City Libraries whakaputu/archives, references & special collections manager Rowan Miller.

He was James Shiner Bond, and the then owner of the street - Mrs Ada Warr - attached his name to it in 1922.

Bond St is named after Hamilton’s own James Shiner Bond - a former mayor and the man who turned the Waikato Times into a dailiy paper. James St is named after W B James.

James Street was named after the street owner, W B James, in 1916. However, not much is known about who he was.

That means both streets were named long before writer Ian Fleming created the fictional British Secret Service agent in 1953.

In fact, there’s a whole story behind Bond Street.

It was originally known as Nixon Street, with the view that it would connect with Nixon Street in Hamilton East. But was decided that the connection would not happen and the street was renamed in September 1922 to Bond Street.

Breaking in between Bond Street and Nixon Street today is Hamilton Boys’ High School.

Bond was a well-known figure in the community - a businessperson, a councillor, and the mayor of Hamilton between 1905 and May 1909, according to Hamilton City Libraries’ heritage records.

Between 1896 and 1902, Bond owned and operated the Waikato Times, changing it from a tri-weekly publication to a daily publication.

Perry Rice, who wrote articles about streets in Hamilton in the column On the Street, said that street names are influenced by many factors, “which can provide valuable information about the history of Hamilton and the people who have lived here”.

For example, street name history has seen our city change over time.

There used to be many Richmond Streets in today’s Hamilton. There was a Richmond St in the city, named after a town in North Yorkshire; and there was one in Frankton, then a separate borough; and then there was Richmond Avenue in Waipā County.

“Over time, with the city boundaries expanding, these street names have to be rationalised,” Rice said.

The Frankton Richmond St became Ellis St, the Waipa Richmond Ave became Horne St, and the city Richmond St became Bridge St, which then became Anzac Parade in 2015.