What the historic St James Theatre will look like once rebuilt

After years of neglect, a fire, theft and leaks, the historic St James Theatre in Auckland is inching back to life. A $49 million rebuild has reached a critical milestone, allowing work to accelerate as the theatre edges toward its centenary.

Closed since a fire in 2007, the Category 1 heritage-listed venue — which hosted Queen Elizabeth II three times and a range of big names like Coldplay, Miles Davis and The Violent Femmes — fell into serious disrepair.

Current owner Steve Bielby, who bought the building in 2011, describes himself as "an arts and culture lover and a historic building lover".

"I've done a few of these heritage projects sort of over the years and essentially we're not really commercial developers, we're developers of last resort," says the former planner, whose Auckland Notable Properties Trust has done commercial and philanthropic projects.

"We'll do projects that don't really stack up and they're not really viable, and this ticks all of those."

Bielby and his team of architects, conservationists and engineers have committed to restoring the theatre to its original opening-era aesthetic. That decision, he says, avoids the incoherence of layering multiple decades of alterations.

"So what we've done at that second level balcony is actually removed those coatings to go back to the original colours. You can see like the original gold leafs and brighter oranges, reds, sort of sand colours," Bielby tells Culture 101.

"In the 50s, when the Queen came, there was a joke that the Queen always used to think the world smelled like fresh paint and that's because essentially before she’d come to buildings, they'd paint them. And that's exactly what happened here."

Not everything from the 1920s is a straightforward revival though. Two nude female statues, covered with plastered-on robes decades ago after public outcry, remain under debate. Bielby says the final call sits with experts — though he's open to public sentiment.

"I'm sort of happy to try to put my foot on the scales of that, you know, in the public interest and see, you know, if the public demand it, they should get it."

The rebuild has been complicated by theft. During a break-in three years ago, copper wiring, lead flashings and three cast-iron statues were stolen. It later emerged the statues were authentic French works from the 1800s — something they hadn't realised until an art expert spotted markings on their bases.

"We never saw the original statues that were here again. I flew over to France and got some art dealers involved, and we managed to track down two of the exact same statues that weren't up here and make the original appear again.

"So these ones have come all the way over from France and will be restored and popped back up."

The stolen lead flashings caused water ingress, damaging the fibrous plaster dome. That means large portions of the dome will have to be replaced.

"It's essentially just fallen down and lost its structural integrity."

Today, the theatre is a worksite, with cords hanging above muddy floors, debris in piles and the absence of seats from the first floor allowing space for a makeshift office. Yet Bielby sees progress.

"The whole building's sort of essentially almost a movie set... It is a giant illusion, really."

When complete, the refurbished St James will seat about 1480 people — fewer than the original 2000, but with larger seats. Bielby doesn't believe it will compete with the Civic or Spark Arena for blockbuster productions, instead carving out a niche for smaller-scale and local shows.

Auckland Council and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage have injected about $31 million of funds into the restoration, with Bielby covering the remainder. Just replacing outdated electrical wiring has cost up to $400,000, he says.

With an ambitious two-year completion timeline, Bielby says they’ll know within a year how they’re tracking.

"I'm not convinced that current day Steve, if he could time travel back in time, would tell back then Steve, who was 29-years-old, that this was a great idea. But we've stuck with it and I'm really glad that we've stuck with it. It's been hard times, but, you know, I'm really excited to see progress happening."

Looking to the future, Bielby hopes the project will help spark a wider revival.

"Midtown is in a really tough place. So, let's reimagine this area and let's be ambitious about it."