Boarded-up beauty in waiting game

Built in 1928, the St James was thought to be so beautiful it was dubbed 'the theatre perfect'. Photo / Steven McNicholl

The St James still sings but its songs are the lonely kind that echo around the 82-year-old theatre, now closed to the public.

Not all the lights can be turned on because of electrical work, so the darkness inside the theatre is broken by Mr Doole's heavy-duty torch.

Beautiful boxed lamps hang from the ground level up to the grand circle, pooling brightness on the walls.

There's a pigeon cooing somewhere overhead - one of the lights makes a sputtering on/off noise as it struggles to stay lit. A door in one of the boxes creaks while Mr Doole talks.

It's ghostly, but still pretty.

Walking on the ground floor is like being rocked in a dinghy. The floor boards speak quietly as they slope down towards the stage.

Singer Joe Cocker was the last gig Mr Doole heard at the theatre. He laughs at recollections of Ginette MacDonald's "Lynn of Tawa" accent reverberating around the room.

Mr Doole accepts work needs to be done to rescue the theatre, but it rankles when he hears descriptions like decrepit and decaying.

Just because it's closed to the public, doesn't mean it's ready to fall down around his ears, he says.

There are no leaks and, all in all, he reckons the St James is in good nick for an octogenarian.

It's cool and airy in the lobby where there are broken tiles here and there.

Flags recalling the Black Eyed Peas, the theatre's first talking movie Gold Diggers of Broadway and former owner Sir Robert Kerridge line the foyer, which runs through the middle connecting Queen and Lorne Streets.

There's a big chip out of the marble staircase. Outgoing Waitakere City Mayor Bob Harvey visited not long ago and told a worker how he dropped a film canister when he was a teenager.

Buxom-bosomed lady statuettes lining the curved wall look on, and beside the main entrance playboard bills are empty, their gilt frames boarded over.

From the outside, there's nothing to suggest that anything remarkable lies behind those locked doors.

For now, the ageing beauty quietly waits.

RATEPAYERS FACE BIG BILL
One-tenth of the $50 million St James Theatre restoration cost will be paid by the owner, but ratepayers will probably foot the rest of the bill.

Owner Paul Doole's resource consent conditions to build a 39-level apartment tower next to the theatre include provisions for strengthening and other compliance measures which will cost $5 million.

The, work which Mr Doole hopes to start within the next 12 months, includes:

* Restoring the St James tower, which was covered with a false facade in the 1950s.

* Restoring the canopy on Queen St and reinstating one on the Lorne St side.

* Building a supporting wall which will abut the new tower development.

* Bringing fire exits up to date.

The consent report also states that asbestos must be dealt with.

Aside from those conditions Mr Doole is not required to do anything else.

Estimates for full refurbishment and reopening are running at $50 million. But he does not have that sort of money.

"I'd like to see it restored like everyone else. The reality is I don't have $50 million to do up the theatre. I've agreed to a $5 million commitment and I see the council doing the balance of work and reopening."

But ratepayers would need to buy the building first, he said.

Without that ownership issue settled, he was surprised that The Edge had put in a Government bid which included the theatre as part of its national convention centre push.

"It's bizarre. When The Edge said they were incorporating it I was somewhat surprised, given they hadn't even talked to me."

The developer said an Auckland City Council officer approached him five years ago about the possibility of selling but the proposal had not gone anywhere and a solid offer was never made. If a sale did happen he was likely to sell at Government valuation.