BUILDINGS AT WORK
It seems a perfect match – an extensive vintage motorcycle collection housed in a beautifully restored heritage building in the heart of Burt Munro country. But when the present owners of the former Thomson & Beattie drapery, a Category 2 historic place on Tay Street in Invercargill’s CBD, bought the building, they did so for its beauty, rather than having a specific use in mind for the site. Joc O’Donnell – the instigator of the building’s new use as a motorcycle museum, along with her husband, Scott – says the couple was impressed with the former drapery’s good bones and beautiful façade. So in 2014 they bought it, as well as what had once been the John Edmonds Building next door at number 25 Tay Street. The Thomson & Beattie building, built in 1881, had later been used as H&J Smith’s Outdoor World (until Outdoor World transferred to the H&J Smith department store’s main premises), and number 25 had more recently been a seedy nightclub and suffered clumsy alterations. Fortunately the alterations made to the Thomson & Beattie building to suit later uses had not caused great damage. The leadlight windows in the back wall
had been covered up with board and the tongue-andgroove panelling and mellow old brick were obscured by modern lining material, but the beautiful lift and the graceful staircase remained, and the spaces were expansive and suited to a museum. At first it seemed the building would become a home for the display of art and sculpture from Anderson Park, a large art gallery with expansive gardens on the outskirts of the city. However, this plan didn’t eventuate and Scott became interested in the auction of a collection of more than 300 vintage motorcycles in Nelson. His timing was unfortunate for Joc, who was recovering from an operation and busy caring for unwell family members. She told him he could go to the auction with another work colleague as planned “but he was not to buy anything”. True to his word, Scott did not buy anything at the time – but he did negotiate a three-day option to buy the entire collection. He was persuasive and finally Joc was captured by the potential of the idea and began to see the Thomson & Beattie building as an ideal home for the collection.
WORDS: MARIANNE TREMAINE • IMAGERY: MEGAN GRAHAM
REVVED UP Now home to an impressive collection of vintage motorcycles, a restored Invercargill building is adding to the appeal of the city’s main drag
20 Winter 2018
Heritage New Zealand
