Statement of Significance
Maranui Surf and Lifesaving Club is the second oldest surf lifesaving club in New Zealand. Together with the Lyall Bay Surf and Lifesaving Club, the age and history of which it closely shares, it is an important reminder of the key role that surf lifesaving clubs have played, for nearly a century, in voluntarily keeping the country’s beaches safe. Maranui is also one of the city’s longest operating sporting clubs and the earliest part of its clubhouse, dating from 1930, is one of the oldest surf clubhouses in New Zealand. Maranui has enjoyed huge success in competitions and is arguably the country’s most successful surf lifesaving club ever. The Clubrooms building has significant historic and social values for these reasons.
The Clubroom building is moderne in style, its strong cubic form and narrow horizontal weatherboards making it a prominent structure on the sweep of Lyall Bay. It has townscape value for its prominence, in an area that has some natural beauty because of the beach, sea and surrounding headlands but few structures of any architectural value. For a building constructed in three distinct stages it is remarkably homogenous. It remains functional today, in the use for which it was built some 60 years ago, giving it an amenity value.
History
The beach at Lyall Bay was a popular attraction by the early 1900s and, in 1909, members of the Wellington Swimming Club began using it to practise surf rescues. After a series of spectacular rescues of swimmers on one February day in 1910 there was a public call for the formation of a lifesaving corps.
A new club was formed as a branch of the Wellington Swimming Club, but it became a separate entity in early 1911 as the Lyall Bay Surf and Lifesaving Club, the second such club in New Zealand and the first to patrol. Unfortunately, its first clubhouse was washed away that same year, and a major dispute between members of the club led to the formation of the breakaway club of Maranui (the Maori name for area now called Lyall Bay) at a meeting held in the local Smith’s Tearooms. The choice of name, described in 1911 as “sweet sounding … that rolls easily off the tongue” , was a conscious decision in recognition of the area’s Maori past, which even then was largely forgotten. The new club was officially formed on 3 October 1911 with a total of 96 members. From having no surf lifesaving clubs the city now had two.
Maranui built its first clubhouse in 1911 with the help of the Wellington City Council, but the council soon made it clear that it wanted the two clubs to amalgamate. This nearly happened in 1919 but, within a decade, the subject had been dropped. After enough time elapsed, the rivalry between the two clubs moved onto the beach.
M.G. Templeton built Maranui’s second clubhouse in 1930, just west of the old building. A club member, Harold Claridge, drew up the original plans. The building was one story with a section of flat roofing designed to allow for “scrutiny of the beach in case of accident.” Most of the interior was devoted to the clubroom, which faced Lyall Parade, while the section facing the sea housed a reading room and a committee room. The ability to build the clubhouse, which largely relied upon the fundraising ability of members and the generosity of the city council, was seen as a milestone at the time – it was a demonstration of success, and confidence in the club’s future. The building was officially opened on 6 December 1930, marked by the presence of an orchestra.
During World War II the building was appropriated for army use and surf lifesaving activities were greatly reduced by the absence of members on overseas service. The Lyall Bay club allowed Maranui members to use their facilities during this period. The clubhouse was returned in 1943. The club had trouble receiving the expected compensation from the army, and it transpired the council had given the army use of the building gratis without consulting the club. Eventually, the army paid up to the tune of £112, which worked out at £2 per week.
With the end of the war and return of the clubhouse, plans were made to extend the building, but the cost involved delayed this. The plans were revived in 1953, when, with membership at 253 , the club began fundraising. Various events were held, including a ‘social and smoke evening’. The additions were required to house the growing number of young members. By this period the club appears to have become something of a ‘social worker’, with “…part of our work … designed to keep young chaps off the street and try and make useful citizens out of them.” This became a useful point to raise when soliciting funds, and appears to have been successful, given the amount of donations, some albeit modest, given by members of the public and businesses.
The second storey extension designed by the City Engineer, which largely accounts for the present appearance of the building, was completed early in 1956. According to one account, the building was acclaimed as “one of the finest clubhouses in the country”. There was a flurry of construction at Lyall Bay at that time, with new premises built for the Lyall Bay club and for the Wellington Ladies Surf and Lifesaving Club (later amalgamated with Lyall Bay) at the same time. In 1964 a boatshed was added to the north-east side of the building, which altered the shape of the building, particularly from the sea-side. This work established the configuration of building as it appears today. Recently, the first storey has been altered to accommodate café facilities and is now open plan.
Although Lyall Bay is not an especially dangerous beach, club members have made a number of rescues there since 1911. The club has won a great number of national surf lifesaving titles and had numerous Wellington and New Zealand representatives. It is also prominent in water polo. The beach remains popular with swimmers and surfers, particularly (though not exclusively) in the summer months.
Description
The Maranui Surf Lifesaving Clubrooms were built in three distinct stages. The original drawings, dated September 1930 and prepared by the WCC City Engineers Department, show a single storey building. It had a substantial concrete foundation and was timber-framed above with cladding of lapped weatherboarding and timber joinery. A large clubroom filled most of the space, with a reading room and committee room on the seaward side with a flight of steps down onto the beach. These rooms had a flat roof covered in malthoid, used as a lookout with ladder access, while the clubroom portion had a hipped roof in galvanised iron.
In 1956 a whole first floor was added, with a stairwell on the Lyall Bay Parade side with the two tall narrow windows that exist today, and a bay window on the seaward side. This addition is seamless, which is a rare quality. A single storey extension at the north-east end of the building was built in 1964. This was a boatshed and had a large roll-up door on the seaward side. These additions were sheathed in the same narrow lapped weatherboards of the addition and this cladding, combined with the flat roofs and strong geometric shapes of the different parts of the building, give it a very distinctive cubic appearance.
The Maranui clubrooms building is a landmark in the sweep of Lyall Bay, the most interesting one architecturally of a string of recreational buildings built on the sand on the seaward side of the concrete seawall. It is a treeless and bleak part of the city, especially in a southerly, and there are few other buildings of any distinction in the vicinity.
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