Waikato Herald
  • Waikato Herald home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Rural
  • Lifestyle
  • Lotto results

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Lifestyle
  • Lotto results

Locations

  • Hamilton
  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Matamata & Piako
  • Cambridge
  • Te Awamutu
  • Tokoroa & South Waikato
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Weather

  • Thames
  • Hamilton
  • Tokoroa
  • Taumarunui
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Waikato News

The greying of Te Awamutu

By Peter Shaw
Te Awamutu Courier·
19 Jan, 2021 11:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Peter Shaw is disappointed his local 4 Square has adopted 'grey' - apparently the new corporate colour for the once bright chain.

Peter Shaw is disappointed his local 4 Square has adopted 'grey' - apparently the new corporate colour for the once bright chain.

Opinion: At this time of the year Te Awamutu fully deserves its name "Rose Town".

Our civic and private gardens are swathes of colour. But look more closely at the buildings. They're usually painted grey.

The library is the largest and dullest of the newer buildings. Across the street the Events Centre is now almost all grey; even the curling exterior tube of the hydroslide, formerly a bright blue, is now reduced to boring charcoal.

Te Awamutu Library and Te Awamutu Events Centre, Selwyn Ln.
Te Awamutu Library and Te Awamutu Events Centre, Selwyn Ln.

The early 1930s Streamlined Art Deco Commercial Hotel has had its impressively detailed architectural features compromised by being painted just two tones of grey.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Like most new eateries the interior of the restaurant is painted black. Where did the idea that food can only be consumed amid Stygian gloom come from?

Peach & Porker (Commercial Hotel), Alexandra St.
Peach & Porker (Commercial Hotel), Alexandra St.

The colour consultant who saw to it that the formerly red Woolshed Theatre was painted dark grey last year didn't get the joke.

The original colour was an amusing reference to all those red woolsheds that dot the green paddocks of Waipā farms.

A complaint at this failure of imagination resulted in most of the grey remaining.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A diagonal slash of cream was applied to two walls and a single part of a street-facing 'shed' roof was permitted to be red, but the joke was lost forever.

The Woolshed Theatre, Mahoe St.
The Woolshed Theatre, Mahoe St.

Apparently, the consultant who chose the new sludge-like hue for the theatre looked at surrounding buildings and went for something similar.

This is called Contextualisation. The streets are grey; all the nearby buildings are grey; when the weather is cloudy everything is grey.

Are we such dreary people that we want or deserve this?

Alexandra Hotel and Five Stags, Pirongia.
Alexandra Hotel and Five Stags, Pirongia.

In parts of Finland in the far northern hemisphere people live for nearly three winter months each year in near darkness.

They must take precautions to avoid suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder which causes depression, lethargy, loss of appetite and insomnia.

One of the ways they brighten up their lives to is use colour. Lots of it.

You can see brightly painted apartment blocks everywhere. Reds and greens, blues and yellows, oranges and purples stand out from paler shades, forming the sharpest possible contrast.

This is not only cheering and enjoyable but has a demonstrably positive impact on people's moods. Colour is life-enhancing.

Yet here, if you go into any paint shops there are lines and lines of sample cards in the so-called fashionable 'neutrals'.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Shop assistants will explain that "That's what people want these days." No. It's just what is available.

Regal Chambers, Market St.
Regal Chambers, Market St.

There are small models of houses painted in light and dark grey, brown, charcoal and black but none using brighter colours for contrast.

Are we in fact scared of colour? Scared of daring to make a statement?

Look at the new housing developments from a distance. All you can see is acres of grey.

The New Zealand dream of the quarter acre section is a fiction now. If houses are to be built so close together do they all have to be painted the same drab colours?

There's a perfect example of what can be done with the clever use of colour close by.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Just pay a visit to the Jim Barker Memorial Park in Ōtorohanga. It's fun, uplifting and well planned. It's a riot of colour.

How many others are there in Te Awamutu who now cringe at the sight of painters' scaffolding going up on a building?

What can be done to rescue us from this New Drab?

Spectrum Group's Market St office.
Spectrum Group's Market St office.

Peter Shaw lives in Pirongia and has spent his life involved in architecture history and the arts. He has written on the subject, including the books New Zealand Architecture from Polynesian Beginnings to 1990 and A History of New Zealand Architecture, as well as being arts writer for Metro magazine for 18 years. He is also art curator of the Fletcher Trust art collection.

Titles from Peter Shaw
Titles from Peter Shaw
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Waikato News

Waikato Herald

Man high on mushrooms crashes car into garage, with a preschooler on his lap

Waikato Herald

'A newfound faith': Rapist says the Lord will help him as he’s sent to jail

Sport

Netball: Magic narrowly lose to Pulse after scores still tied in final minutes


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Waikato News

Man high on mushrooms crashes car into garage, with a preschooler on his lap
Waikato Herald

Man high on mushrooms crashes car into garage, with a preschooler on his lap

The garage collapsed on top of Freeman Ruhe's vehicle but the pair escaped injury.

14 Jul 08:00 AM
'A newfound faith': Rapist says the Lord will help him as he’s sent to jail
Waikato Herald

'A newfound faith': Rapist says the Lord will help him as he’s sent to jail

14 Jul 07:00 AM
Netball: Magic narrowly lose to Pulse after scores still tied in final minutes
Sport

Netball: Magic narrowly lose to Pulse after scores still tied in final minutes

14 Jul 04:28 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Waikato Herald e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Waikato Herald
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP