Nothing before like this

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33034, 29 September 1972, Page 22

Nothing before like this

Christchurch has never seen anything like it. For Christchurch people seated in the auditorium of the Town Hall and lost in the contemplation of this vast structure, they are able to relate the magnificence of the chamber to what they know only through an aquaintance from visit or pictures with the huge indoor assemblies of America, Europe and Russia.

There is a great deal to admire. From the bright starlights in the black void of the ceiling, down past the dramatic acoustic sails floating over half the arena, through the golden browns of the furnishings, and on to the glowing wood grains of the floor there is nothing

that can be imagined better done another way. Christchurch people coming to their Town Hall are able to feel that they have been extremely well cared for.

The generosity of scale found in the auditorium runs through the whole complex. The stalls and gallery promenades, broad, curved, and softly carpeted, are used to display soaring windows with drapes in gold, brown and orange, intricate light fittings arranged down the equivalent height or three storeys, the finely-moulded iron-and-wood balustrades, and the fat and warm brass entrance indicators. Interest starts in the foyer itself, and remains in every part of the building. The juxtaposing of white marble and natural concrete right at the entrance is a declaration that the wheat sheaf and cupid motifs of the Victorian civic assembly are not likely to be found here.

Both the public restaurant at the lower level, anc the Limes banquet hall

above, are placed to embrace and charm their little stretch of the Avon; and, as if that water were not enough to set off a place to eat, the restaurants look out over the trees and lawns of Victoria Square and the banks of the river, have a triple fountain for a foreground, and find rest on the terraced rows of the tens of thousands of ochre bricks which lead down from street level.

The James Hay Theatre has its particular interest in the gallery, where the strong inward slanting of the seating rows brings everyone there to see each other as well as the stage. And none in the gallery would have faint hearts, for the aisles seem like ladders.