Herne Bay has been a prosperous area since the 1850s due to its outlook over the Waitemata Harbour.

[3] In 2021 it again topped rankings of the most expensive suburbs in New Zealand, with a median property value of $3.25 million.

The suburb is named after Herne Bay, a fashionable but respectable seaside resort in English county of Kent.

From the 1850s onwards it became apparent that Auckland's Herne Bay was quite handy to the centre of town by a short boat trip.

Herne Bay developed as an early commuter suburb and was the location of several large houses belonging to members of the professional classes.

Most of these houses (termed 'marine villas') were readily accessible from the water, with their own jetties and boathouses - in some cases there was not any land route to them.

Also located in this area on the shore of Ponsonby (between Argyle Street and the sea) was Kemp's Gardens.