A quietly changing southern suburb with an affordable 18-hole public golf course, a proper community mix, a destination bakery and direct access into Newtown and town. This is Berhampore, a real Wellington NZ working-to-middle neighbourhood.

Berhampore sits on the Adelaide Road corridor between Newtown and Island Bay, in the long southern valley that runs from the CBD down to the Cook Strait coast. With a population of around 3,700, it is one of the more affordable and quietly changing parts of Wellington City. You will find 1890s cottages, landmark state housing, new townhouses, a couple of great cafes, a much-loved public golf course and big slabs of Town Belt bush all within five minutes of each other.

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The Vibe · A Quick History · The Golf Course · Things to Do · Food & Drink · Living in Berhampore

Berhampore is Wellington in transition. For decades it was a working-class southern suburb, anchored by state housing, the bus route and the Pacific and migrant families who settled across Wellington's south from the 1950s and 60s onwards. In more recent years it has quietly gentrified, with young professionals and families priced out of Mt Cook and Newtown moving south for the cottages and a steadier pace.

Weekends have a neighbourhood feel. A slow coffee and a pastry at Baker Gramercy, a round at the golf course, a kickabout at Wakefield Park, and the school gate at Berhampore School doubles as the community noticeboard. The Adelaide Road spine is what knits it all together.

Berhampore takes its name from Berhampore (now Baharampur) in West Bengal, India. Early landowner George Hunter named his "Berhampore Farm" here in honour of his father-in-law, Major Paul, a former Indian Army officer who had served at Berhampore in Bengal — one of several Indian names that ended up on this corner of the map. The suburb itself filled in from the 1890s, when the town acres along Rintoul Street and Adelaide Road were cut up for workers' housing, and the electric tram line through Newtown and Berhampore to Island Bay (commissioned in 1904–05) finished the job. A strip of butchers, bakers, bootmakers and blacksmiths soon followed to serve the new streets.

Berhampore's landmark state housing came just before the war: the Berhampore Flats (also known as the Centennial Flats) at 493–507 Adelaide Road were designed by government architect F. Gordon Wilson and built in 1938–39, and remain in public ownership today. More social housing followed on Britomart Street, redeveloped in 2018 as Te Maru o Tawatawa. From the 1950s onwards, Pacific families became part of the fabric of Wellington's southern suburbs, and Berhampore remains notably diverse today. Recent decades have added modern infill townhouses and the steady renovation of the older cottage stock.

Berhampore's standout asset is the Berhampore Golf Course, an 18-hole public course (a short, sporty par 66) spread across the Town Belt hillside on both sides of Adelaide Road, with its entrance on Stanley Street next to Wakefield Park. It is run by Wellington City Council as an affordable pay-and-play operation — around $25 for adults, no bookings needed, open dawn to dusk — with club and trundler hire available from the Mornington Golf Club clubhouse, and even a disc golf course sharing the hillside. For a course this close to the CBD it is remarkably uncrowded, and the views across the city and out to the south coast are the real trophy.

The course sits inside the southern Town Belt, and the City to Sea Walkway runs right through this stretch of green on its way from the central city to Island Bay. The mature trees and open hillside give this edge of the suburb a semi-rural feel that is unusual for somewhere this close to town.

Local tip: Beginners are welcome at the golf course and hire clubs are available. It is one of the cheapest and friendliest places in Wellington to try the game, and a weekday afternoon round costs less than a night at the pub.

Wakefield Park at the Island Bay end of the suburb is the south's football hub, with all-weather artificial turfs that host club football most of the winter, and a big playground — flying fox and climbing wall included — just across Adelaide Road. Macalister Park, on the ridge side between Berhampore and Vogeltown, is a big open sports ground used for rugby, football and athletics, with an off-leash dog area beside the fields.

Behind the eastern side of the suburb, the Town Belt track up Mt Albert gives you a short, sharp bush climb to a hilltop view of the south coast and Cook Strait. It is a surprisingly good outing on the Southern Walkway, which connects north towards Newtown and Mt Victoria and south towards Houghton Bay and Island Bay.

Wellington Zoo, Newtown's shops and markets and Island Bay's beach are all a few minutes' drive away. For more, our things to do in Wellington page and the weekly Wellington events calendar are the easiest starting points.

The Berhampore strip has punched well above its weight in the last decade. Baker Gramercy on Adelaide Road is a genuine destination — an artisan bakery whose bread and pastries pull people in from across the city — and Mingle Cafe & Eatery along the same strip covers the neighbourhood brunch. Sprig + Fern Tavern on the Luxford Street corner is the local — it won Hospitality NZ's Best Local award in 2023 and again in 2026 — and a couple of long-running Chinese takeaways do the weekday job well. Keep an eye out too for Araucaria Pizza Shop, the much-loved Chilean pizzeria that the neighbourhood rallied around after flood damage in 2026.

For a bigger dinner out, Newtown's Riddiford Street strip — including its run of Indian and Asian eateries — is four minutes' drive, and the full spread of town is ten to fifteen minutes. See our Wellington restaurants, Wellington cafes and Wellington bars pages for the current city-wide picks.

Berhampore is one of the more affordable suburbs in this southern arc and the housing reflects its mixed history. Expect workers' cottages and villas from the 1890s and early 1900s, landmark state housing still in public ownership, mid-century family homes and a growing layer of new townhouse builds, particularly along the Adelaide Road spine where the council has zoned for intensification.

Berhampore School on Britomart Street is the local primary, a genuinely diverse, community-rooted school that is a big part of why families stay. South Wellington Intermediate is right in the suburb on Te Wharepōuri Street, and for secondary school Berhampore falls within the zones of Wellington High School and Wellington East Girls' College, with zone-free Rongotai College also close by.

Transport is genuinely easy. The Adelaide Road / Riddiford Street corridor is one of the city's core bus spines, with high-frequency Metlink route 1 running directly through Berhampore to the CBD roughly every 10 to 15 minutes. By car, the CBD is 10 to 15 minutes off-peak, and SH1 at Karo Drive — the Inner City Bypass, which feeds the urban motorway — is about five minutes away.

Newcomer tip: Adelaide Road is zoned for significant intensification under Wellington's 2024 District Plan, so values and streetscape are likely to keep changing. (The light rail line once proposed along this corridor was cancelled when Let's Get Wellington Moving was wound up in late 2023.) If you are buying for the long term it is worth reading the council's planning documents for the corridor.

Berhampore is a real Wellington neighbourhood: mixed, affordable for the inner south, with a cheap public golf course, a destination bakery and a community that stretches back generations. It is also one of the fastest-evolving suburbs in the city, which is what makes it interesting right now. For the bigger city picture, head back to our Wellington City guide, check the Wellington weather and flick through this weekend's Wellington events.

Know a Berhampore spot we have missed? Flick it to us at [email protected] and we will add it to the next update. Steve and Kirstie, WellyBuzz.