In 1842, the Tonks were one of the first families to settle around what was to become Cuba Street. They bought up a lot of the property in the area and established successful brickyards. Eventually, local streets including Tonks Grove, Arthur Street, and Frederick Street were named after members of the family.
Even in the early days of the mid-1800s, Cuba Street was a busy neck of the woods with a local market for country folk to sell their produce, a violin maker, two grocers, a butcher, a bell hanger and locksmith, a painter and glazier, a boot shop, a draper, and of course a pub – the Nag’s Head Inn.
Many of the stores that first opened on Cuba Street are still recognisable today, with James Smith opening the Te Aro House in 1868 and Nees opening circa 1874. Hannah’s footwear was launched in 1868 and opened a store on the street a few years later, Hope Bros was a menswear clothing store before the brand moniker was adopted by today’s bar of the same name, and Kirkcaldie & Stains temporarily opened a branch in the neighbourhood in 1871.