FIND THESE STEPS – At 89 Fitzherbert Terrace and from Murphy Street down the steps just before the motorway.
A surprising garden lies just beyond the Murphy Street steps.
On the other side of the steps a pathway to the US Embassy, the original site of the Katherine Mansfield Memorial in 1933 and moved to the present location after the completion of the motorway.
Katherine Avenue intersects Fitzherbert Terrace.
Mansfield’s father, Harold Beauchamp, erected the memorial to his daughter in 1933, She lived in Wellington until she was 19, and moved to London in 1903. The family had lived in Thorndon until 1893 when they moved to Karori. The Thorndon house at 25 Tinakori Road is open to the public.
FItzherbert Terrace is named for Sir William Fitzherbert, who arrived in Wellington in 1841 and later served, among other posts, as Speaker of the House. Ms Irvine-Smith notes he was described by Gibson as ‘Able and astute, he was the Ulysses of Statesmen.’ She describes this area, before the motorway cut through it, as ‘one of the city’s most sylvan residential streets.’ The memorial ‘tramwait’ located here described by Ms Irvine-Smith has disappeared.
Wellington Steps 