Repainting the old

Now, when it comes to the repainting of heritage buildings, I'm very subjective and quite judgemental as far as the results are concerned. Basically, though, the main rule of thumb I apply as to whether I like the result or not is whether the fine architectural details of buildings are just covered in a swathe of paint, or used as part of the final paint job and shown off by the new colour patterns.

Exhibit A comes from home -- the 1938 Avondale Post Office, designed by Llewellyn (Llew) S Piper. I don't know how it was originally painted, but in the 1990s, under Avondale's Mainstreet Programme, it was repainted using three colours, with details accentuated, as seen below. The yellow when first done was brighter, but not too much.

Now, no longer a Thai restaurant, new owners are giving the old girl a refit and make over this month. I do like the results so far, because the detail around the windows and along the low parapet are being recognised and picked out in grey. Folks in the community I've spoken to feel this looks quite smart.

Hopefully, if no one bowls the Unity Building (1932) opposite, whatever landlord that comes along treats it just as kindly.

Then, we have exhibit B: the Victoria Picture Palace Theatre in Devonport.

It used to look like this (below). Described as "lolly-pastel", this exterior paintwork at least looked bright, true to period, and showed off architect Daniel B Patterson's 1929 facade detailing. But, I suppose because it was "lolly-pastel", it had to go. Image from WikiCommons, by the way.

So, now there's this (below). The details are still there, but they're now visually washed out by the sun reflecting off all that gleaming white. This building has now added another dislike to my set of personal opinions: I wasn't fond of old commercial and public buildings painted totally black, and now the Victoria Cinema has added solid white to that lack of preference. In an age, today, when we realise that the ancients didn't just have white buildings and white statues (even the Romans used colour for details) -- the Victoria Cinema's cheerful seaside hues have been obliterated.

Below, from the "History of the Victoria Cinema" poster displayed on the outside of the building, are Patterson's details as designed.

So, fine -- there's now a clean, freshly-painted old building in Devonport, but I do hope some day, when there's a need to raise the paint brush again, that they give some thought to providing a masterpiece, and not just a whitewash. Righto, I'll step off my soapbox now, thank you ...