Epsom War Memorial Arch

Epsom is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is located in the centre of the Auckland isthmus between Mount Eden and Greenlane, south of Newmarket, and 5 km (3.1 mi) south of the Auckland City Centre. A valley located between four volcanic hills, Epsom was settled by Tāmaki Māori likely in the 13th or 14th centuries, becoming an are cultivated for Māori gardens due to the fertile volcanic soil. By the 17th and 18th centuries, Epsom was close to the centre of Waiohua, an influential union of Tāmaki Māori tribes, who focused life at Maungawhau / Mount Eden and Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill. Around the year 1741, conflict between iwi led to the area becoming a part of the rohe of Ngāti Whātua. After the establishment of Auckland, Ngāti Whātua sold 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) of land to the Crown, on which the village of Epsom was established in 1841. Epsom developed into an agricultural area during the 1840s and 1850s, and by the 1860s upper class members of Auckland society began establishing large country homes at Epsom. In 1903, a tramway was established in the suburb, and commercial villages developed in Epsom. By the 1920s, most of Epsom had been converted from farmland into suburban housing. From 1930 to 1989, eastern Epsom was the One Tree Hill Borough, a local government area independent from the City of Auckland.