Daily Telegraph Building, Napier

The Daily Telegraph Building was built in 1932 to designs by architect E A Williams. It is a symmetrical two storey building with a central section sporting a small balcony and topped with a flagpole.

The balcony has an iron balustrade with a geometric pattern which reminds me of some of the decoration on the Hoover Building in west London. The rest of the building is beautifully decorated. Columns between each window are crowned with a complex arrangement of curves and arches separated from the smooth render of the columns by a zig-zag band.

A repeating pattern of short vertical blocks are separated with larger blocks at regular intervals. The name of the newspaper which occupies the building is spelt out in large letters across the whole façade. The decoration continues inside around the cornice of the main rooms and at the top of the internal supporting columns and interior lights.

The Daily Telegraph Building is a great Art Deco building and one of the highlights of Napier, New Zealand’s Art Deco city.