Napier – the Art Deco city

Please be aware that this story contains links to websites with images of earthquake damage and descriptions of the earthquake and its aftermath. It may be distressing for some.

In 1931 Hawke’s Bay in New Zealand’s North Island experienced a devastating earthquake that measured 7.8 on the Richter scale.

The earthquake started at 10:47 in the morning of the 3rd of February and the first shock lasted two and a half minutes; a lifetime for those who experienced it. This ‘quake remains the largest civil disaster in New Zealand’s history with an official death toll of 256 people, although the true figure is higher.

The Hawke’s Bay earthquake devastated nearby towns such as Napier, Hastings and Wairoa, and in Napier it was quickly followed by fire that ravaged the buildings. This article on the Napier City Council’s website tells more of the event itself and the efforts to clean-up afterwards.

The disaster must have seemed impossible to recover from to those who lived through it. In the local museum in Napier eyewitness descriptions and film shows just how horrific it was. Yet out of the ashes rose the Napier of today; an Art Deco city with buildings that draw tourists from around the world. A Trust has been established to celebrate the era, and two events a year bring visitors in summer and winter to experience one of the world’s most complete collections of 1930s architecture.

The fact that Napier had to be rebuilt in a hurry – in two years more than 100 buildings had been erected – meant that the style of architecture was copied from other places. In addition the depression years and the earthquake itself meant a loss of ready capital to be innovative but some of the buildings stand out from others, in particular those that started with Art Deco and added a New Zealand flavour. The images below show, amongst others, the former Bank of New Zealand building (now NBS) with its Māori kōwhaiwhai patterns.