This small cottage, located on Sydney Street West in Thorndon, was the home of one of the pioneers of New Zealand Art, Rita Angus, between 1955 and 1972.
The land that the cottage occupies was originally purchased by A.J. Swanson in 1874, and a mortgage was taken out on the property in 1877, making this the likely date for the construction of the cottage. It appears that the Swanson’s had a second house built on the property (194) in 1897, which was two storeys, faced the street front, and was designed by Guido Schwartz. It is probable that they occupied this new large house. The property was sold in 1916 by Mary Swanson, the widow of A.J. Swanson, to Catherine Duignan, spinster. The house was sold in 1926 to Mary Kinsella, a widow. In 1937 the property was purchased by Andrew Hamilton and then exchanged hands several times, before being sold in 1945 to Ethel Park. In 1955 the house was sold to Robert Hamilton, then almost immediately on-sold to Ian Kirk, who then sold to the artist Henrietta Catherine McKenzie, now better known as Rita Angus.
The cottage has gained much of its significance as the home of Rita Angus. Angus purchased the cottage in 1955 and it remained her home until her death in 1970. The period in which Angus was living in the cottage is when many of the major developments occurred in her career, and marks a time of growth in Angus’ confidence in herself as an artist. In 1957, at the age of 49, Angus had her first solo exhibition at Wellington’s Architectural Centre Gallery. The following year she received an Association of New Zealand Art Societies fellowship that allowed her to study art for a year in England and Europe. Returning to Wellington, her concentration on painting landscapes, particularly in Thorndon, and works such as ‘Self-portrait with fruit’ (1960-61) and ‘Self-portrait’ (1966) that feature the cottage and the Magnolia tree show the influence and the impact that Angus’ surroundings had on her work. The simple cottage suited the lifestyle that Angus had sought after, and was described by Angus’ friend Frederick Page as a ‘hidden house with a magnolia tree, one of those places that could turn up in a story[…]there was a touch of magic about it, mystery even, as though one day you could go and it wouldn’t be there’. When Thorndon was bisected by the motorway in the mid 1960s, Angus, in the spirit of protest, documented the demolition of historic houses and the removal of tombstones from the Bolton Street Cemetery.
Following Angus’ death in 1970 the cottage passed to her family, and was used as a rental property until 1984. During this time, the cottage came under threat from demolition so that townhouses could be constructed, but due to difficult access to the site, considerable protest from surrounding property owners, and letters supporting the retention of the cottage from the likes of Colin McCahon, this did not go ahead. In 1976 the Wellington City Council put new zoning in place that aimed at protecting the special character of the Sydney Street West, Tinakori Road, and Hill Street area by preserving the existing buildings and limiting new developments. This zoning was the first of its kind in New Zealand.
The changing recognition of the special nature of the landscape and the cottage, together with the increasing critical acclaim of Angus’ work, prompted the Thorndon Trust to purchase the cottage and secure its future. Restoration of the cottage began in 1984, and the house was repiled, reroofed, rewired, refloored, had new plumbing and kitchen fixtures installed, as well as having a number of general repairs carried out.
The cottage has largely been kept ‘as it was when Rita lived in it’, and is now used as accommodation for an artist in residence program.
