Victorian heritage villa selling for $50k to make way for tunnel extension

It’s cute and it’s ripe for renovation, but this Victorian villa must be moved for the second time in 153 years. And the owner is offering it up for a mere $50,000.

The heritage-listed villa in Paterson St, Mount Victoria, built in 1873, sits on leasehold land owned by NZTA and has to be removed to make way for the second Mount Victoria tunnel.

Ettrick Cottage has been in the Lovering family since 1996 - current owner Rhys Lovering says it was bought by his father Derek after it was moved from 7 Austin St, where it had been for 120 years. He inherited the house a few years ago after his father died.

“The house has been tenanted by the same couple for the past 16 years, but because the uncertainty of the timing of a sale they have now bought land and are building at Makara,” Rhys Lovering. “They rented it so long, they could have bought it.

“They were amazing tenants - she was passionate about gardening and he was great at building and doing handyman stuff.”

One of the daughters, Alice, was still living there when she passed in 1955, aged 88. You can read more about the history of Ettrick Cottage on the Wellington City Council website. It notes that Samuel Atkins spent many of his years as a night watchman an the Government Printing Office and was a local identity. He died in 1917.

The villa is considered a rare example of an 1870s worker’s cottage. Most of the character features remain. These include the entrance veranda, finials, decorative bargeboards and bay windows.

There are rimu native timber floors throughout the house, although these are currently under carpet and vinyl parquet floors laid by Lovering’s father in the 1990s. “My dad wasn’t exactly a fashionista,” he says. “But the floors have been protected.”

The cottage does have modern conveniences, including a heat pump, two gas fireplaces, gas hot water, a gas stove, electric oven, and bathroom heater.