Worst house, best street: Huge 1890s villa on Napier Hill has that box ticked

It may be languishing, but this huge villa on Napier Hill was once the very grand home of Frederic Wanklyn Williams who founded the Williams & Kettle stock and station agency.

Williams, the grandson of the first Bishop of Waiapu, William Williams, had the house built in the 1890s – it was next door to the bishop’s own residence, which is still there.

As is often the case with very large old villas, this one was converted into four self-contained flats in the 1950s. And then, around 20 years ago, it became home to Russell Pickering and his late partner Jane, a former Folies Begère dancer.

Pickering describes the purchase as something of an “impulse buy”. “It was really odd,” he says. “We were up here from Wellington for a holiday and Jane saw an illustration in a real estate window. She asked about it, and the agent said ‘it’s going to auction in a few minutes – follow me (up the hill)’.

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“It was passed in, but she was mad keen on it. If she’d had the money in her pocket it would have been bought on the spot. But we came back over several weekends, and did end up buying it.”

Pickering says the character and the view were key reasons they took over the house. So, too were the citrus trees – having orange and lemon trees was a novelty.

“We also had tamarillos, which used to be my favourite fruit, till an insect came along and the trees withered and died. There is a very old grapevine, which poked through at the front of the house. I trained it up the side of the house, and was able to walk out onto the upstairs balcony and pick the grapes off the vine. A wind knocked it off, and getting it back up there is beyond me now.”

Three of the flats have been dismantled, but there is still one separate flat in the house.

But Pickering says he now finds the stairs a struggle, and is planning to move into a retirement village. The house has been listed by Gabby Morris of Tremains Real Estate, who says the Victorian villa “certainly ticks both the “location” and “worst house, best street’ boxes on your list”.

The 390m² two-storey house sits in a prominent position on 1389m², with views out to sea. In its current configuration, there are five bedrooms, four bathrooms, three toilets and several living areas. Character features remain, including stained glass and sash windows, native timbers and the original balustrading.

Morris says there’s plenty of room for extended family “or possibly even group ownership for those struggling on their own to get a foothold on the property ladder”.

The property, at 9 Hukarere Rd, Napier, is for sale by tender, with tenders closing on November 30, 2022.