203 Cuba Street, Wellington

The People’s Palace is a bit formal and tall by Cuba Street standards, when you look up it feels a bit like a teacher who has caught you up to something and is leaning back a bit doing the teapot while you think of excuses. But s/he is also a bit wobbly – perhaps s/he has a different, more colourful side, involving after hours in the downstairs Bistro…

People’s Palaces were built by the Salvation Army throughout New Zealand and Australian cities in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Designed in grand (palatial) Victorian and Edwardian style, they were used as shelter for the urban poor and board for working class travellers, all on a temperance basis of course.

203 Cuba St is the only survivor of 3 in NZ – this part is just the North Annex, 1/4 of it, built in 1904. The top floor was added in 2004  – controversial at the time but very sympathetically done I think (from the outside at least)

Oils with acrylic background on small panel. Sold at Mana Arts Trail 2019