Katherine Mansfield Memorial Park is an attractive tree-lined park on the southeast side of the Wellington motorway as it cuts through Thordon. The park is a short walk across the Hobson Street motorway bridge from Katherine Mansfield House on Tinakori Road. Paths through the park run between Hobson Street and Molesworth Street. Molesworth connects with Wellington’s Parliament Precinct and downtown. The northside walkway has nice views over the sunken motorway across residential Thorndon to Tinakori Hill.
In 1933, Katherine Mansfield’s father, Harold Beauchamp, established a memorial to his daughter in the form of a tramway shelter. It was designed by William Young, who had just completed the design of the Wellington Railway Station. A side street near the memorial was also named Katherine Avenue. At the time, the surrounding streets were suburban, but in the 1960s, the Wellington motorway bisected Thorndon, and the surrounding land was acquired for the development. Once the motorway was built, reserved land was allocated to develop the park and establish a new memorial through a pergola, seats, a shallow pool, and an earlier plaque.
The Lady McKenzie Garden for the Blind was also added, and today, there is also a Japanese garden.
