The Compleat Cityscapes

Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown launched David McGill’s and the late Grant Tilly’s The Compleat Cityscapes in the Wellington Town Hall Council Chambers this evening. Surrounded by Tilly line-drawing originals such as St Mary of the Angels and the Bond Store Museum, she identified to an audience of 80 the heritage buildings in the book which had been demolished, but also those that have been restored. These include the very building in which the launch took place.

David McGill added that the successful fight in the 1980s to save and restore the town hall, the St James Theatre and the State Opera House provided the infrastructure without which the International Festival of the Arts could not have been staged.

            McGill wrote and Tilly illustrated the weekly newspaper column that ran for seven years over the late 70s and early 80s, when the fate of Wellington’s heritage buildings was decided by the open warfare between proponents of preservation or demolition. The 244 Cityscapes columns were an affectionate record of the capital in transition. Many of the audience at this book launch were involved in failed campaigns to save the Skyline Tearooms, the Spanish American Midland Hotel, the ziggurat State Fire Insurance and the ornate pink CML building, but also successful campaigns to save the likes of the Public Trust, Departmental Building and State Insurance precinct.

            In 1980 McGill proposed a Wellington Civic Trust to ‘Save Our City’, and in the audience were members of this still active ginger group. The lessons learned then, McGill contends, are still relevant for the saving of earthquake-prone buildings, whether private or public.

            Pat Lawlor, chronicler of early 20^th century Wellington, described McGill and Tilly as ‘engaging fossickers of places of charm and character … the denizens embroidered with Dickensian skill’. The series won the Cowan Memorial Prize for Outstanding Journalism.

            Over the years since, McGill told the gathering, there were continuous requests for the articles and Grant’s illustrations. An arson attack destroyed most of his originals, but McGill made use of digital experts to convert old newspaper clippings into a large-format 500-page book and an ebook, available from Silver Owl Press, in bookshops or direct from publisher at www.davidmcgill.co.nz, the ebook from www.mebooks.co.nz. The McGill website features the 15-minute YouTube video shown at the launch of Grant just before he died discussing the book with David.

Published by Silver Owl Press,24 Aperahama St, Paekakariki 5034. Phone/Fax 04 292 8226

To purchase contact www.davidmcgill.co.nz/macdcat@live.com. A4 Landscape Norbook cream stock 497pages RRP$64-99; direct from publisher for $50 plus $8 packaging and postage.

David McGill signing for fellow publisher Graham Stewart and friend Tina De Bes