‘Like stepping into a Janet Frame novel’: Visitor sentiment towards 56 Eden Street

The house-museum at 56 Eden Street, was not only the site of turmoil for author Janet Frame and her siblings, but it also provided a space for voracious reading and the Bronte-like creation of make-believe worlds. 56 Eden Street is now owned and administered by the Janet Frame Eden Street Trust and in better condition than it was during Frame’s childhood in the 1930s and 1940s when it was often unkempt and chaotic due to the family’s straitened circumstances. Opened to the public by Prime Minister Helen Clark in 2003, through the ceremonial act of cutting Frame’s typewriter ribbon, the house offers a repository for items that represent Frame’s life and career, such as a radiogram which plays her voice reading from her autobiography, her grey serge school tunic and original lino on the floor. This article considers the history of 56 Eden Street through readings of Frame’s autobiographical text To the Is-Land , alongside handwritten entries in the visitors book and the responses of online reviewers from Google and TripAdvisor. I argue that 56 Eden St is a key part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s cultural heritage and literary infrastructure, offering an immersive visitor experience that can be mundane or magical, depending on what people bring with them.