In recognition of the importance of readers' contributions to the letters page, the newspaper each week selects a Letter of the Week, with a book prize courtesy of Penguin Random House. This week's winner is Grahame Sydney, of the Cambrian Valley, for his letter opposing plans to alter the exterior appearance of the Dunedin Railway Station for a Cobb and Co restaurant.
The Dunedin Railway Station is one of the few great treasures of this country’s architectural heritage. A spectacular symbol of Dunedin’s late 19th-century prosperity and confidence, it partners the similarly grand Law Courts complex to form a historical and architectural precinct unique in the nation. In recent decades, Dunedin has learnt that its perceived character, charm, and point of difference on which so much tourist appeal depends, is focused upon its Victorian and Edwardian built estate, and the city council has done much to encourage preservation of the remaining buildings which contribute so much to that demonstrable attraction.
It is therefore distressing to read that, once again, a commercial interest has plans to not only turn the fame of this magnificent structure to its own advantage, but to seek approval from the council to convert a section of its garden setting into a glass-walled, wooden-floored deck stretching the full length of the station’s northern wing (ODT, 29.11.16). I trust the council will recall the embarrassment of its mistake in permitting Valentine’s Restaurant, a previous — and failed — occupant of the same part of the venerable building, to display a pink neon sign advertising its presence from one of its front windows, glowing brightly in every tourist photograph taken during those misguided years and crassly cheapening the entire edifice.
Now here comes Cobb & Co, promising to spend millions, claiming ‘‘really careful’’ work with Heritage New Zealand to ensure the building is not damaged. I should think not! But what of the aesthetic damage, the visual damage, the damage to the building’s unrivalled, priceless integrity? I read with relief the ‘‘project would still continue if the deck is not approved’’. Here’s hoping the council recognises what a precious asset it has in the railway station, the undeniable focus of so much of the city’s pride and promotion, and that it allows the building to stand alone and majestic in its unaltered state.
