Buckle Street is situated partly encircling the Basin Reserve and intersecting with Cambridge and Kent Terraces. It runs through Pukeahu National War Memorial Park and ends at Taranaki Street.
It is one of Wellington's earliest named streets and was named after John William Buckle (1775 – 20 February 1846). Buckle was a solicitor in The New Zealand Company, the London correspondent and one of the named directors from 1825-1844 and arrived in New Zealand in 1840.
Originally home to the Māori settlement, Pukeahu Pa, it then housed the first land barracks following the European troop occupation of the village in 1843.
It was later the scene of the 1913 waterfront strikes, and of course home to the National War Memorial Carillon and the Dominion Musuem.
In addition to this it has also been the site of a number of schools, including the early Wellington school, Buckle Street Public School for Boys and Girls, built in 1875.