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Princes Street (often misspelt as "Princess Street") is a major street in Dunedin, the second largest city in the South Island of New Zealand. It runs south-southwest for two kilometres from The Octagon in the city centre to the Oval sports ground, close to the city's Southern Cemetery. North of The Octagon, George Street continues the line of Princes Street north-northeast for two and a half kilometres. Princes Street is straight and undulates as it skirts the edge of the City Rise to its northwest. The part of the street immediately below The Octagon is the steepest section, as the road traverses an old cutting through Bell Hill. Princes Street was developed during Dunedin's 1860s boom from the Central Otago gold rush, and consequently is one of New Zealand's most historic streets, with about 70 buildings in close proximity listed on the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Register. Originally the site of the city's wharf, a substantial area of land to the east of the street was formerly part of Otago Harbour, much of it reclaimed via rock removed during the lowering of Bell Hill which separated Princes Street from northern Dunedin in the early years of settlement. In the years following the gold rush, Princes Street was the heart of Dunedin's central business district, but much of the city's main retail area has now shifted north to George Street. ==History== In the early years of Dunedin's settlement, much of the city's growth was on two areas of reasonably flat land close to the harbour, separated by the large Bell Hill and an area of low swampy land. The northern of these two flat areas surrounded the floodplain of the Water of Leith, a small river that runs through Dunedin. As the city grew the swamp was drained to become the new city's centre, and the hill was lowered by excavation to allow access between the two areas of settlement. A street grid was set up with the main road split in two by the city centre (now The Octagon) - Princes Street to the south and George Street to the north. As with many of the city's other place names, both these names and that of the Water of Leith reflect the names of places in Edinburgh.〔("Dunedin's Scottish heritage" ), Dunedin City Council website. Retrieved 5 November 2010.〕 In the settlement's early days, Bell Hill proved a major obstacle to travel south of the city centre, and major excavation work was carried out to provide access to the south. A cutting was made in the hill in 1858, and during the 1860s the hill was lowered by some . The cutting allowed for the passage of transport between the two parts of the town. The southern flank of the hill was also completely removed (that area now being occupied by Queen's Gardens). The stone removed from the hill was used as construction material for many of the city's first permanent buildings, and also as fill to reclaim the northern end of the Southern Endowment along the edge of the harbour. This reclamation work added a considerable area to the central city; the original docks, close to the Exchange area of Princes Street, are now several hundred metres inland. The area of Princes Street between the Exchange and Market Reserve was a frequent source of dispute in the early years of European settlement. This area, at that time on the foreshore of Otago Harbour was a traditional landing site for Māori waka. Captain Cargill, the founder of the new city, wished to follow the British practice of keeping the foreshore as public land. As the town spread, the area around the landing site became populated by settlers, and visiting Maori relied on the coastal strip as a place to set up their encampments. The southern Commissioner for Crown Lands, Walter Mantell noted the problem and proposed to his superiors in Wellington that a site be found at which the Māori could erect permanent structures, naming the Princes Street foreshore as the preferred site. Mantell and Cargill, who had been bitter political opponents for the control of the early settlement, quickly found themselves at loggerheads over the proposal, and disputes over the ownership and allocation of the land dragged on for over two decades, finally being settled in the courts in 1877. In the years following the Central Otago Gold Rush of the 1860s Dunedin grew rapidly, with much of the growth being centred on Princes Street. In the city's early years this road was notorious for its unformed rough nature, a consequence of the work on Bell Hill, and led to Dunedin's early nickname of "Mud-edin". The prosperity brought by the gold rush led to a boom in construction, and within a handful of years, the area around lower Princes Street became the most prosperous in the country. Many of the prominent grand buildings of this part of Dunedin date from this period, and numerous structures in the area have New Zealand Historic Places Trust classification as a result. There is a considerable photographic record of early Princes Street, largely thanks to the presence in the street of the studios of the Burton Brothers, pioneering New Zealand photographers. Many of their images, and those of other early Dunedin photographers, were collated and published in a series of books by photographic historian Hardwicke Knight, one of which — a collection of photographic works by Daniel Louis Mundy — was entitled ''Princes Street by gaslight'' (1977).〔(Details of this book ) at OpenLibrary.com〕 Several notable companies have either been founded or had their headquarters in Princes Street. Notable among these were The Drapery and General Importing Company of New Zealand, later simply known as The D.I.C., Hallenstein's, and H.E. Shacklock. The first New Zealand headquarters of Briscoes were also located on Princes Street. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Princes Street, Dunedin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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