"Curiosities of decoration” where have they all gone?

Press, 19 August 1977, Page 13

"Curiosities of decoration” where have they all gone?

By

JOHN WILSON

Forty-three years ago, in January, 1934, a reporter on “The Press” searching, as reporters often are at that time of year, for something to write about, went walking round the city looking out for “curiosities of decoration” — sculpture or relief work used to embellish the city’s commercial buildings.

He discovered enough examples to decide that the thousands who used the streets of Christchurch daily lost many pleasures through failing to see the obvious — an observation that surely holds true today, even though many of the interesting old buildings which sported “curious decorations” have since been replaced by plainer structures.

In 1934, the reporter observed: “Today there is a striking contrast between the ornate styles in stonework of the early days and the comparative severity of the present.” These words were written when ferro-concret had been newly introduced into building construction. The reporter of 1934 might be surprised to see

how severely plain some of the buildings erected in Christchurch in the 1960 s and 1970 s appear beside the buildings which he thought were plain when they were being built in the 19305. Many of the sculptures and reliefs which the reporter noticed in 1934 were already of considerable age and some were “weather-beaten and looking extraordinarily for-

lorn.” Even so, a number of the “curiosities of decoration” which he noticed have survived. Among them are the terra-cotta statues on the side of the Chamber of Commerce building which faces the Scott memorial, and the lion and unicorn on the balcony of “The Press” building. They are rather eclipsed . today, despite their fresh paint, by the grander coat-of-arms over the entrance to the Public Trust building on Oxford Terrace.

The reporter of 1934 singled out for special note the fine group of figures then surmounting the A.M.P. building in Cathedral Square. The woman standing guard over her children, holding a horn of

plenty, were referred to in those days by facetious clerks as "Mrs Amicus and family” from the Latin motto of the company, “Amicus certus in re incerta.” Today, the building on which this “curiousity of decoration” stood is gone, but the group of figures is safely lodged inside the lobby of the new A.M.P. building on the same site. But other of the

“curiosities of decoration” have not survived the demolition or alteration. Hereford Street is still a happy hunting ground for quirks of architectural decoration, but the two examples singled out in 1934 have disappeared. On top of the building which formerly stood at 135 Hereford Street was a fine model of a castle surrounded by a moat, bearing the inscription, “Multi societate tutiores,” and the date, 1824.

This particular image is still to be seen at the same site on Hereford Street, but now only painted on glass above the entrance to the Alliance Assurance Co. building. A

few doors east on Hereford Street, the reporter noticed, in 1934, a model of a man with a sword upraised protecting a woman and a child from a wolf. The model bore the Latin tag, “Praevisa mala pereunt.” Not even a photograph of this curiosity seems to have survived. On Worcester Street two buildings which were curiously decorated are

still standing, but the decorations have been removed or mutilated. On the H. F. S'evens building, erected in 1906, there was in 1934 a “striking emblem of the trade” of pharmacy. Today, only the mortar remains high on the centre of the building, scarcely recognisable as such without the pestle which once protruded over the street.

Members of the staff of the firm recall the mortar and pestle intact before the war and that the pestle was removed during the war when the building’s pinnacles and parapets were altered to reduce the earthquake danger. Being killed by a falling pestle — part of a symbol of healing —

would have have been ironic.

Next door to H. F. Stevens is the building which was once Smiths Central Motor Garage; it was converted in the 1930 s into a movie theatre. In 1934 there was on this building a charming relief of a motor car — “an uncomfortable looking motor-car of very early date” which showed “a contrast with the luxurious vehicles which pass it daily and is a testimony to the pains that must have been endured by the pioneers of motoring.” This decoration, too, failed to survive alterations to the top of the building.

Many curiosities which once decorated Christchurch buildings must have vanished without trace. A few are remembered, like the white hart regardant which surmounted the hotel of that name built in High Street in the 1860 s.

Christchurch is the poorer for the loss of these novelties. The lesson is to ensure that buildings which are perhaps important only for their decorative detail survive in

order to provide variety and delight for the eyes of people who walk round the city.