Former NZR station's past revealed

The years are being peeled away and colours from the past are re-emerging at the Otago Settlers Museum's former NZR bus station building, thanks to some painstaking historical detective work.

Contract conservator Laurence Le Ber says when the art deco bus station opened in 1939, the colour scheme and lighting were much more sombre than today.

The paintwork on interior walls was a "buff" straw-like colour and the lower edges of ornamental plasterwork high on the walls were highlighted by a more metallic, shinier version of the paint, which gave them a more golden appearance, Mr Le Ber said.

Various art deco signs on the walls, such as "Arrival Platform", were originally painted dark green.

In recent weeks, he had been patiently removing the successive layers of paint and revealing the hidden earlier colours.

What he also found interesting was people coming up to him as he worked and saying they could remember the bus station when they were younger.

"They've seen it in different guises," he said.

The original colour scheme and lighting were darker and more conservative, creating a somewhat cosy atmosphere for travellers, an echo of the darker hues and more subdued lighting also favoured in New Zealand home decor at the time, he said.

The walls long continued to be repainted in the same colours, but later, probably in the 1960s, the colour scheme began to lighten.

The building's modern internal electric lighting is also considerably brighter than in 1939.

Museum director Linda Wigley said as part of the museum's major redevelopment project, museum organisers had been investigating the bus station's original colour scheme and appearance.

The museum was considering reinstating much of that original appearance, but final decisions had not yet been made, she said.

john.gibb@odt.co.nz

Photos by Gerard O'Brien.