Waitangi stream flowed from Newtown, past the Basin Reserve and down to the shore at the eastern side of Te Aro, forming a large swamp that was used by Māori for food (eels and shellfish) and flax gathering.

[5][6]: 32  By the 1880s Te Aro was packed with working-class houses and businesses catering to the workers, and the area had gained a reputation for being poorly-drained, dirty and disease-ridden.

[6]: 128  The situation gradually improved as new suburbs such as Newtown, Miramar and Karori opened up and city infrastructure was developed.

[9][10] In 1945 Wellington City Council held a conference to discuss the slums of Te Aro, which led to the widening of Taranaki Street.

[12][13] Members of the New Zealand Company arrived in Wellington in 1839 and laid out a town plan which paid no regard to the several pā in the area.

[6]: 16  In 1844 six rangatira (chiefs) from the settlement signed the 1844 deed, bringing Te Aro Pā into the New Zealand Company purchase of 1839.

This area became the centre of Wellington's Chinese community in the late nineteenth century, after miners migrated to the city from goldfields in the South Island.

[31][32] A television documentary produced in 1989 explored the red light district, interviewing prostitutes, strippers and business owners.

In October 2021 Wellington City Council released its draft District Plan which would allow new buildings in Te Aro to reach 42.5 metres or 12 storeys, to cater for projected population growth in the area.

[38] Public feedback following release of the draft plan showed many residents were worried about loss of sunlight and privacy.

Te Aro is home to several small theatres, including Circa, BATS, The Hannah Playhouse and Griffin.

An electrically operated clock was installed at the eastern end of the park in 1927 by the Tramways Department,[52] but has since been moved further along to a pedestrian area in Courtenay Place.

In 1988 Wellington City Council approved a design by Shona Rapira Davies for redevelopment of the park as a symbolic waka (canoe).

A tiled upright structure forms the prow of the canoe, and trees planted at intervals along the sides represent paddlers.

[61] From around 2018 anti-social behaviour at the park increased, and in August 2020 a police report on the area was submitted to Wellington City Council for review.

The police report led to publication by the Council of Te Aro Park – Assessing Harm in September 2020.

[66] The stated aim was to increase visibility around the park, make it look nicer, slow traffic and create more pedestrian space.

The Council announced that permanent replacement facilities would not be built for over a year, probably in 2024, but that it intended to place some temporary toilets in a nearby street within a few months.

[71] Architects Warren and Mahoney won the overall prize in the Steel Awards of 1982 for their attempt "to recreate a contemporary meeting place using the light indoor/outdoor structure".

[73] A pedestrian overbridge originally joined the complex to James Smiths department store, but it was removed in the late 1990s.

[76] In 2015, the Council's Transport and Urban Development Committee chairman Andy Foster suggested that the Oaks could be turned into a covered market.

St Mary of the Angels (opened 1922) is a Catholic church in Boulcott Street, built in concrete and brick in a Gothic style.

'Taj Mahal' is the nickname of a building on the median strip between Kent and Cambridge Terraces and Courtenay Place and Wakefield Street.

The building was saved from demolition by public protest, and since then has been used successively as storage for Downstage Theatre, an art gallery, and as home to various bars and restaurants.

[88] The Taj was formerly part of the beat for gay men looking for anonymous sex,[89] and students have held capping stunts there.

[91] Te Aro is a coastal suburb, and has a popular publicly accessible waterfront area that includes the Museum of New Zealand and Clyde Quay Wharf.

[92] The Overseas Passenger Terminal was demolished in 2012[94] to make way for a new apartment complex called Clyde Quay Wharf, which opened in 2014.

The long-proposed and much-protested Wellington Inner City Bypass through Te Aro was a news story for decades, but is now accepted.

Former Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast was accused of nepotism for allowing high-rise development by her husband to go ahead in the predominantly low-rise area of southern Te Aro.

[97] A statue of Queen Victoria sits on a traffic island between Kent and Cambridge Terraces at the western side of Te Aro.