Vulcan Lane
Ref: 4-377, looking west towards Queen St, Auckland Central showing the south side of Vulcan Lane, 1880s, Sir George Grey Special Collections Vulcan Lane. Just the name has nifty ring to it although interestingly, the city never actually did come up with the name intentionally – it was simply a nickname that stuck. According to the Auckland City Street Names Index , it was “Previously Victoria Lane. Named after the Vulcan Foundry, High Street ” (see p.31) Ref: 4-1776, looking west from O'Connell St showing Vulcan Lane, 1919, Sir George Grey Special Collections The lane has an interesting history - a fire destroyed much of the area in 1850, and two prominent hotels (still standing today) opened in the decades following - the Queen's Ferry Hotel in the 1860s (pp. 31, 54) and the Occidental Hotel in the 1870s (pp. 31, 53). By the 1890s the lane was overcrowded and getting rather a bad reputation, although there were still professional offices in the street.