Surf club beautified ahead of demolishing

Artist Damin Redford-Scott, known as Dside, with his latest work on the Lyall Bay Surf and Lifesaving Club in Wellington. Photo/Mark Mitchell

Lyall Bay Surf and Lifesaving Club house has been jazzed up with a mural - less than a week before it's due to be demolished.

The clubhouse, which was built around the 1950s, is being torn down on October 3 to make way for a new, $3.8 million building, head of fundraising Ian McIntosh said.

The mural of paddling penguins, painted by artist Damin Redford-Scott, known as Dside, is to raise awareness of fundraising efforts.

The team are short $700,000 and are working on a number of projects to raise the extra funds.

Twelve other artists will be using parts of the building, such as doors and floor parts, to paint artwork on.

The artworks will be exhibited, "hopefully", at Wellington Airport for about a month, then auctioned off.

McIntosh said if the artworks could not be exhibited at the airport, they would have them at another prominent place in Wellington.

The rebuild is expected to take about 14 months, and the $700,000 is not urgent.

"We've got enough to start the building and get the building into public use," McIntosh said.

They plan to "carefully chop off" sections of Dside's mural before the building is demolished.

Information on other fundraising projects will be available on the website forthesea.org.nz later this week.