George Denton Park is approximately of native bush given to Wellington City in 1951 by William Denton in memory of his parents, George and Eliza Denton. Now a part of Wellington Town Belt, it is sandwiched between Zealandia and Polhill Gully on a high ridge, far behind where the Dentons once lived. George Denton was a founding councillor of Wellington's Acclimatisation Society in May 1871. He was noted for his interest in Maori lore and friendships with Maori of his own generation. Denton came to Wellingtonat the beginning of 1856 from Nelson where he had arrived from London on 17 January 1856 on the sailing shipChina. His future wife, then Eliza Bennett, had arrived as a child in 1848. Denton sold ironmongery and sports equipment and provided the services of watchmaker and jeweller from his shop at 58 Willis Street. Storms at high tides could wash away stock on display in front of father-in-law George Bennett's shop at the junction with Lambton Quay. His wife and he raised 11 children in their house called Fern Hill in Woolcombe Street opposite the top of Ghuznee Street. The property backed onto the Town Belt. He grew nikau palms there and gave away their carefully cultivated seedlings. Denton's hatchery near his house distributed some 5000 to 6000 hatchling trout around the lower North Island each year. A founder and stalwart of Wellington's Acclimatisation Society he also acclimatised and distributed the Society's imported birds and maintained any maimed birds all in his own aviary. At the Acclimatisation Society he was assisted by Alexander Rutherfurd, 30 years an assistant and clerk assistant of the House of Representatives, of Masterton and Moroa Station, Alfredton. Denton managed to avoid any political appointment. A carving of his head made from totara, was one of those on the face of John Plimmer's 'Old Identities' hotel on the corner of Willis Street and Boulcott Street. That building was demolished in 1929 and replaced by the St George. Denton's wooden head is now preserved in the Wellington Museum.
