ENCOUNTERS OF A VERNACULAR KIND: Anna Harding
Written by Anna Harding
A Mall to Remember by Anna Harding (1st Prize Winner 2011: Cultural Icons & The Vernacular Lounge Non-fiction Writing Competition, ‘Encounters of a Vernacular Kind’)
The Depot is pleased to announce the winner, runner up and highly commended writer of the 2011 Cultural Icons & The Vernacular Lounge Non-fiction Writing Competition, ‘Encounters of a Vernacular Kind’, a narrative competition on the topic of New Zealand’s distinctive local culture through its everyday icons.
The competition was judged by Graham Beattie, Linda Blincko and Federico Monsalve.
The 1st Prize goes to Anna Harding with her entry A Mall to Remember. Anna wins an eight to ten week writing course at The Creative Hub in Auckland.
The 2nd Prize goes to Philippa Werry with her entry Anyone Can Play. Philippa wins a $500 book package from Random House New Zealand.
Highly commended: Derek Jones with his entry A Sense of Itself.
The Cultural Icons project www.culturalicons.co.nz and The Vernacular Lounge are both initiatives of The Depot with the aim to identify, discuss and debate New Zealand’s continually emerging cultural identity and to celebrate those who have significantly contributed to it.
The winning entries are available to read online at www.morphmagazine.co.nz and will shortly be available as podcasts on www.jamradio.co.nz.
A Mall to Remember by Anna Harding
Everything green half price! says the blackboard outside the Pt Chevalier Arcade hospice shop. Inside a volunteer is holding up a print of an idyllic farm scene.
“I’d like to be there right now,” she sighs with an American drawl then adds, “I have a friend who only buys painting of places she wishes she was.”
Next door in the post shop, an elderly woman is arguing about the price of sending a parcel, she snarls at the lady behind the counter and leaves with the package still in her hands. In the Chinese Medicine shop window, a heartfelt letter is posted. It shows a picture of a baby boy with a hand written note thanking the doctor for curing the couples five year fertility battle in five weeks. In the cobbled courtyard between the Arcade and the library, a man with an exposed belly grunts loudly and smiles at passersby. He settles on a park bench beside a white haired man who is sipping from a silver hipflask. They appear to know each other.
The floor inside the Arcade is tiled in matt brown. Chipped blue steel holds up dusty shop fronts and the panelled ceilings are decorated with fluorescent lighting. In part, it is this grunginess that makes everyone feel welcome. There are no airs or graces and while the suburb becomes increasingly middle class with every house sold, the Arcade still parades the true diversity of Pt Chevalier residents. Amongst the neighbourhood’s gentrified bungalows and in-fill houses, are evenly dispersed state homes, a number of mental health facilities and a ten hectare retirement village.
The Arcade was built in the 1960’s by Les Mills and revamped during the early seventies. It lies at the entrance of Pt Chevalier, a suburb located on a peninsula and bounded by the Waitemata harbour, Meola Reef and Great North Rd. It is these distinct boarders that provide a geographical certainty, a distinct ‘small town’ feeling and a strong community identity.
Originally the shopping area was established out of necessity on the main route south. It served a community’s daily needs and according to Les Hunter owner of Soccer Scene, it is the core shops which have always been there - such as the Post Shop and chemist, that keep locals coming back. Les’ shop is a bit of an anomaly in the Arcade, it is a true destination store with people travelling to purchase his vast range of soccer gear. The rest of the mall however, is perceived to have a provincial-like lack of refinement and is therefore not a place people go out of their way to visit. Also, unlike spiritless St Lukes or pretentious Ponsonby Rd, Pt Chevalier Arcade has no boutiques or chain shops. There are no design stores, fancy cafes or organic butchers. Instead you’ll find a beautician, a weight loss centre, a lotto shop, a laundromat, a couple of discount stores, a coffee bar, a bakery with whole passionfruit sponge cakes for less than the price of two flat whites, the community constables office and a small Countdown. They are local shops for local people.
Les has been in the Arcade since 1999. Since opening twelve years ago, he has noticed substantial changes to the suburb. The area has gone from being non-licensed to licensed paving the way for bars and eating houses, the demographic has evolved from an aged population to bursting with young families and there has been a decrease in the more controversial shoppers.
He says, “There used to be a lot of people from the Mason Clinic come through. There was a second hand shop next to me with beds outside for sale and quite often the patients would go to sleep on the beds, which of course they thought was OK but it didn’t impress the owner of the second hand shop.” These days, problematic patients have trespass notices issued against them. However there is still a quirky element amongst the locals and Les reckons, “The best thing about it [the Arcade] is that the people are local.”
Love it, or hate it (and many do), the eternally retro Arcade is here to stay. Each shop is privately owned and the council has no jurisdiction over privately owned buildings. Many tenants would like to see the place tidied up but even small improvements have to be approved by each and every landlord. As a consequence action is rarely taken which potentially means the Arcade will never be upgraded unless the ownership structure changes.
The only way the Arcade may transform is with the sway of money. It will be when the bottomless pocket of a developer smells the increasing wallet power of Pt Chevalier residents and offers an irresistible premium to shop owners. The question is, if this scenario occurs, will the inevitable upgrades and homogenised beautification lead to equally inevitable upgrades in leases, out-pricing existing shopkeepers? Will this see the end of the provision of essential amenities supplied by independent locals? And will the over sanitisation alienate some of the more colourful locals - making a place where everyone is accepted suddenly become a place where only some are acceptable?
Perhaps while Pt Chevalier residents have the opportunity, they should commission an artwork of the Arcade and its shops. Then in the future if their dated but friendly mall is replaced with a cookie cutter version of every other mall, they can look at the framed print on their wall and sigh wistfully to themselves, “I’d like to be there right now.”
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