It’s tempting to say there’s nothing nice in Lower Hutt, but that would ignore the very fine civic complex around the Town Hall. True, half of it (a grand Horticultural Hall) got pulled down, and the rest fell into disrepair, and it’s only been rescued by having a massive modern extension built on – but what survives is well worth a trip with a camera.
The main building is the Town Hall, built in a soaring 1930s style and gleaming white in the sun, displaying a rather good civic crest. Next door is the Memorial Library: another nice 1930s complex which has some superb murals, but difficult to photograph because of lamp posts and other clutter in the way. Lastly there is a hint of a New Zealand oddity – the concrete church of St James. These concrete churches are so unique that they now have a NZ Concrete Churches page all of their own.
