Forbury Corner, Dunedin: Suburb Guide to Junction Shops and Kew Park

Last updated October 2026

Forbury Corner is a small suburb in southern Dunedin, gathered around a busy road junction where the low southern plain starts to rise. Hillside Road, Forbury Road and David Street meet here, at the edge of the ground known locally as The Flat and at the mouth of the route up Caversham Valley.

The same name is the everyday label for that intersection, and some people still call it Kew Corner. Local shops run along the western end of Hillside Road and into South Road and David Street, with Kew Park on the hill side of the corner.

Forbury Road leaves the junction toward St Clair and the Esplanade, so the suburb works as a crossroads as much as a residential pocket.

Practical Information

Getting there

South Road through Caversham Valley from central Dunedin; Hillside Road from South Dunedin; Forbury Road from St Clair. Easther Crescent comes down off the hill. City buses serve the South Road and Hillside Road corridors.

Main shopping

A local retail strip on South Road, David Street and the western end of Hillside Road. Larger shops are further east along Hillside Road in South Dunedin.

Nearby landmarks

Kew Park; the Waterloo Hotel; tennis courts on Thorn Street; the western end of the Hillside Road shops.

About Forbury Corner

Forbury Corner sits where several of southern Dunedin’s older routes come together. South Road has long been the way out of the central city toward the south. Hillside Road runs east across the plain toward South Dunedin.

Forbury Road runs roughly north-south between this junction and the Esplanade at St Clair. David Street ties the retail frontage into the same crossing. The result is a small suburb built around traffic, shops and a pocket of open ground, rather than a long residential street grid of its own.

The Forbury name is English, not Māori. Early settler William Henry Valpy, who reached Otago in 1849, farmed the western edge of the plain and named one farm The Forbury, after the Forbury near his family’s home town of Reading in Berkshire.

A rough road he paid to have cut, later known as Valpy’s Track, followed something close to today’s Hillside Road and Forbury Road.

Forbury Corner takes its name from that road and from the farm it led to. No separate Māori name for the junction was confirmed in the sources used here. Before European settlement the plain itself was not permanently occupied, though walking routes crossed it.

Day to day, the suburb is a mix of through-traffic, small retail and houses tucked off the main roads. The main shopping is not a mall. It is the continuation of Caversham’s South Road shops as they reach David Street and the western end of Hillside Road.

The Waterloo Hotel stands at the corner and is recorded among the area’s public houses. Above the junction, the land lifts toward the terrace of Easther Crescent. That rise is sometimes called Kew Rise. Kew Park occupies ground right at the corner, with tennis courts nearby on Thorn Street.

The name is easy to mix up with other Forbury places, and most of them are not in this suburb. Forbury Road continues south into the residential suburb of Forbury. The former Forbury Park Raceway, a long-running harness-racing venue, is not at this junction. It lies further across the plain, toward St Kilda and South Dunedin.

The ground to the south and east of the corner is the reclaimed plain, once marsh, flax and fern, and that lower land has a history of flooding. The corner itself is the point where that plain meets the rise.

History and Heritage

The junction’s importance is older than the suburb boundary drawn around it. In the early years of Dunedin a dray could not reliably reach the valley in wet weather without a long detour. Valpy’s road around the hills gave the settlement a southern exit, and the Otago gold rush of the 1860s put heavy traffic on it.

Caversham grew quickly on that route. From 1877 to 1904 it was its own borough, covering a much wider area than the streets people now think of as Caversham, including much of what became Forbury and St Clair.

By the start of the twentieth century the South Road, David Street and Forbury Corner area was a working commercial district. In 1900 it held more than 50 businesses. Trades and small factories sat among houses: bakeries, a bootmaker, a smithy, and Rutherford’s Wax Vesta match factory at Forbury Corner itself.

Wider Caversham also had brickworks, a gasworks, breweries and a tannery. Chinese market gardeners leased and drained swampy ground along the line of Valpy’s Track, including land through what is now Forbury.

The industrial intensity has gone. The match factory is a historical note, not a landmark you can visit. What remains is the junction, the hotel, the park and a thinner retail strip.

Hillside Road becomes more light-industrial as it runs east, toward the Hillside Railway Workshops and the South Dunedin shops. There is no passenger railway station here. Caversham’s own station closed in 1962, and the South Island Main Trunk passes the wider area in tunnel and cutting rather than stopping at the corner.

Getting Around

Most people reach Forbury Corner by the three roads that define it. From the central city, South Road winds around the spur at The Glen and through Caversham Valley.

The Dunedin Southern Motorway, part of State Highway 1, now takes the heavier through-traffic off South Road, which leaves the old road quieter than it was, but it is still the direct suburban route.

From the coast, Forbury Road is the straight run north from the Esplanade. From South Dunedin, Hillside Road brings you west to the same lights and shop frontages.

Easther Crescent is the hill option. It follows a terrace above the plain and drops to the junction from the northeast. Walking between the corner, the South Road shops and Kew Park is straightforward, though the intersection itself is busy and is best crossed at the formal points.

City buses serve Caversham and the roads that meet here, linking the junction with central Dunedin and the coastal suburbs. There is no train stop. For a bigger supermarket or a wider range of shops, the South Dunedin centre is a short trip east along Hillside Road, not a destination inside Forbury Corner itself.

Getting Outdoors

Kew Park is the suburb’s outdoor space. It sits at the junction, with the hill rising immediately behind it, and it is more a local sports ground than a large reserve. Tennis courts lie close by on Thorn Street, and the park is also home to a pétanque club.

The slopes above, sometimes called Kew Rise, are residential rather than a walking network, but Easther Crescent gives a higher line along the edge of the hill if you want a longer stroll off the flat.

This is not a beach suburb. St Clair Beach and the Esplanade are a short distance south down Forbury Road, in St Clair, and that is the coast trip from the corner.

The plain to the east is urban South Dunedin, not duneland. For a neighbourhood visit, Kew Park and the streets immediately around the junction are the outing. For a longer coastal walk, continue to St Clair rather than expecting beach access here.

Where to Learn More

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Forbury Corner?
It is a small southern Dunedin suburb centred on the junction of Hillside Road, Forbury Road and David Street, where the southern plain meets the rise toward Caversham Valley.

Is Forbury Corner the same place as Forbury?
No. Forbury is the residential suburb further south, between this junction and St Clair. Forbury Corner is the junction suburb at the northern end of Forbury Road. The shared name causes a lot of mix-ups.

Why is it sometimes called Kew Corner?
Kew Park and the hill suburb of Kew sit on the rising ground beside the junction. Older local usage sometimes calls the same crossing Kew Corner. Forbury Corner is the name used for the suburb and the usual name for the intersection.

How do I get to Forbury Corner without a car?
City buses serve the South Road and Hillside Road corridors through Caversham and toward South Dunedin and the coast. On foot, South Road, Hillside Road and Forbury Road all lead to the junction. There is no train station.

What shopping is there?
A local strip of shops along South Road, David Street and the western end of Hillside Road. It is a neighbourhood row, not a shopping centre. For a larger range, continue east along Hillside Road into South Dunedin.

What is at Kew Park?
Kew Park is the open ground at the corner. Tennis courts are close by on Thorn Street, and a pétanque club uses the park. It is a local sports ground rather than a large scenic reserve.

Is the old Forbury Park racecourse here?
No. The former Forbury Park Raceway is a separate site further across the plain, toward St Kilda and South Dunedin. The name Forbury is used for the road, the suburb of Forbury, this corner and that old racing ground, and they are not the same place.

Which schools are closest?
No school was confirmed inside the Forbury Corner suburb boundary. Nearby options include Carisbrook School on South Road, St Bernadette’s School in Forbury, and King’s High School and Queen’s High School further south toward St Clair. Check the enrolment zone for your street before you assume a place.

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