Are we in the middle of a heritage renaissance? During Sir Neil Cossons' recent visit, he said several times that we are.
He said as he hasn't been here for a few years, it may be more apparent to him than to we who live here. I'd been thinking something like this but Sir Neil has confirmed it for me. One swallow does not a summer make but there really have been several.
What's going on?I was talking about this recently with some interested parties. When you try to identify a time when it started, it isn't easy. In that conversation we ranged back to 1974 and the proposal then to demolish what at the time was the ANZ bank on Princes St, nowadays Stilettos.
I recall it vividly and was aware some people my senior had taken up the cudgels. What I didn't know was that some large Dunedin-headquartered businesses told the ANZ if they demolished the building, they'd take their custom elsewhere. It seems that was what did the trick.
The late David Cox strengthened the building using tie rods. By modern standards, it's a bit invasive, but it worked. Without the strengthening, it survived the earthquake near that time - 1975 - I think, the most substantial recorded in Dunedin since European settlement. But now it's a whole lot stronger.
That didn't prevent the demolition of the front part of the old Bank of New South Wales further north on Princes St in the late 1970s, a particularly grievous loss. There have been other demolitions since but I think one big turning point was the restoration of the Municipal Chambers in 1989. It marked the end of one phase and the beginning of another.
The 1969 demolition of the Stock Exchange was a particularly low point. If that could go, it seemed nothing was safe. There followed a real spate in which saving the ANZ was something of a swallow, while getting Sir Bob Jones to back away from demolishing the Grand Hotel, now part of the Southern Cross Hotel in the Exchange on the corner of High and Princes Sts, was another.
But the city council restoring a major public-owned building was not just another bird. Long slated for demolition and scarred by the removal of its steps and the 1964 truncation of its tower, its restoration sent official signals and was driven by popular demand. A different standard was set and the city's acquisition and refurbishment of the Railway Station without a murmur of public discontent was a sign of the new times.
There were still unwelcome demolitions, such as that of the Century Cinema on the corner of Princes and Jetty Sts. I could list many more, on the whole fairly small structures but making unsightly holes in the urban fabric, which endure.
Sir Neil warned about these that the loss of some teeth is not the end. But we can't afford any more. Dunedin's gap-toothed grin is a worry and some dentures are in order.
Because I do live here, I'm aware attitudes towards heritage aren't permanently fixed. They ebb and flow and I think by the end of the 1990s they were ebbing. Were people losing interest, or despairing, or had our demographic somehow changed? I'm not sure. But to me the present uptick dates from Ted Daniels' response to the fire at Bracken Court, on Moray Pl in the part off Princes St heading towards First Church.
Where others would have demolished the ruin, Mr Daniels handsomely restored it. There were some losses in the first decade of the 21st century but the Macknight family trust's massive restoration and refit of the Bing Harris warehouse on High St and the attached Clarion Building on Princes St, opposite the old Central Post Office, was a powerful demonstration of the new order. Not only was the restoration sympathetic and elegant, the premises were tenanted with new age enterprises employing many people, frequently youthful.
The opposition to Prista Apartments' proposed demolition of 372-392 Princes St was telling. A row of apparently scruffy and never monumental retail premises was defended by numbers who in the past would only rally for one of the grand old ladies. The jury's still out on that but the renaissance is building steam.
The appointment of the city's first heritage planner, Glen Hazelton, was not only a sign but instrumental. There are cases too numerous to mention but there's: the Cargill Monument and Gasworks Fitting Shop's restorations; Mr Daniels' and his partner's restoration of the Standard Insurance building, William Cockerill's earlier effort with the National Bank, Laurie Forbes' herculean efforts on Crawford St, Messrs Van Aart and Sycamore's restoration of the BNZ, the Macknights' of the NMA building and ADInstruments, and the Post Office, at last. I think yes, this is summer.
Peter Entwisle is a Dunedin curator, historian and writer.
