Upper Hutt was used quite extensively for the filming of various locations - apart from the studios in the suburb of Taita, Isengard's gardens can be found in Harcourt Park, the Hutt River was used for at least three scenes (River Anduin, River Isen, and an unnamed scene where Brego rescues Aragorn), and of course Rivendell is located in the Upper Hutt Regional Park of Kaitoke. And, again apart from the Taita studios, we visit them all on the fullday tours (commercial plug!).
However, the location for today wasn't used for the movie - it's another local street with a great name: Hobbit Lane.
Unlike Gandalf Crescent, this one looks a bit more established, so it wouldn't at all surprise me if it existed before the movie was made.
As you can see from the map below, it's a small cull-de-sac (which is actually anglo-french for "Bag End", curiously) off a main road in the back of the suburb, nicely against the side of the hill, surrounded by trees and shrubs. Again, as with Gandalf Crescent, there don't appear to be any other LOTR related names in the neighbourhood either.
View Hobbit Lane on larger map
Once again, I am not sure about the details of how it got it's name, so if you have more detail, or have suggestions on where I could start looking, please let me know!
Got anything better? Drop me a line!
- Jack M.
What a fun discovery. Thanks for the language bit, too. And with the new 'do, I wouldn't put you a day over 24!
ReplyDeleteThe Bag End reference? Yeah, nice little coincidence... I read that somewhere in a Tolkien related book last year.
ReplyDeleteI'm constantly adding little bits of trivia like that to the tour as well... I love all the subcontexts that Tolkien managed to squeeze into the Middle-earth sagas. All his catholicism, his hatred for industrialism, Disney and Shakespeare (in roughly equal thirds), and how it shows up so clearly in the books (and in the movies, obviously).
As for my new 'do - I'd just had my summer shave that morning; I hadn't realised it was quite the "chrome dome" until you pointed it out... cheers, mate! ;)
- Jack M.
Ha Ha they put it up high so no one would Pinch it!
ReplyDeleteOdentroll:
ReplyDeleteGood point, I never thought about that. It briefly crossed my mind that the sign was annoyingly high, but that's probably the reason for it, yeah!
- Jack
Just to confirm, Hobbit Lane in Silverstream, Upper Hutt, existed long before Peter Jackson started making an LoTR film.
ReplyDeleteI know for sure, as I was considering buying the house at 1 Hobbit Lane back in 1996, and the house had been standing for almost two decades then.
Mundens :
ReplyDelete(delayed reply, sorry!)
Thanks for that information - I wonder why we could get things named after hobbits before the movie, but not very much since then! We're still trying to get something named officially, more on that at a later date.
- Jack
I bought this house "1 hobbit Lane" last year in December and it was built in 1986.
ReplyDeletePrafull:
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! So did you buy it (at least partly) because of the name of the lane?
And what I'm sure everyone wants to know - are there any hobbitish features in the house? Round doors, tunnels, that sort of thing? :)
- Jack