SCHOOL ZONES:
Takapuna Primary, Takapuna Intermediate, Takapuna Grammar.
CONTACT:
Victoria Bidwell, Bayleys, 021 947 080.
TENDER:
Closes 4pm, March 5.
Designed in the 1940s Art Deco-related Streamline Moderne style of architecture, this curvaceous solid concrete home has broad historical connections to medieval and maritime warfare, the cinema world and the book publishing business.
Behind the chapter headings there are countless stories of childhoods enjoyed high above the volcanic shoreline between Milford and Takapuna beaches.
Inevitably, the intrigue behind its defining style has generated a few urban legends as well. But for Terry, Richard and Chris Beckett, whose father Wilf established the firm Beckett Sterling, forerunner to Hodder Moa Beckett publishers, about the time he bought this house in 1949, early life was simply enchanting.
Terry attributes his career choice as a marine biologist to the influence of this place.
He says: "I had the most incredible childhood imaginable, fishing every morning for piper from the balcony, swimming and diving off the big rock out there, sailing balsa wood catamarans on the lagoon at low tide. We all did really."
The boys played medieval-style war games with children from the neighbouring baches in the pre-harbour bridge days when this was a holiday destination for Aucklanders. They fired clay on sticks at the "enemy" hiding among the rocks.
Terry remembers the little blue penguins who'd build their nests from the bark they'd stripped off the Manuka firewood -- until his father penguin-proofed the perimeter with a trench and chicken mesh.
Image 1 of 10: Art Deco beauty delights with its rich design legacy, light, spacious living areas, and riparian rights
Wilf Beckett bought this property from the retired Royal Navy commander he had served with in England during World War II. When Wilf and his wife Mardi moved in, they famously hosted grand parties in the lounge, which brings its own stories to the telling of this home's history.
One such tale is that this home was built by the Moodabe family, who founded the Amalgamated cinema chain in the 1920s, so that the long lounge could function as a cinema. However, Joe Moodabe, the youngest of Michael Moodabe's three sons, confirms that that was never the case, unlike their first home in Newmarket that did have a small theatre.
"This was a family home pure and simple, we never showed films there," says Joe.
"From memory, the house was designed by an architect in Christchurch called Frank Willis who did all of dad's architectural work, the modifications and the interiors for the cinemas.
"Apparently he designed the house around pennies that he laid down to draw the circles."
Joe was 12 when his parents sold the house to buy something smaller. "Mum thought it was too grand."
Sitting parallel to the clifftop on land with riparian rights to the high tide mark, this home was built with a bedroom/library embraced by curved walls at the northern end and the master bedroom in a similar curved room at the southern end, each with a discreet door to the outside tucked in the curves. Two smaller bedrooms were built on the south side.
On the west-facing entry side past the fence with its distinctive modern styling and with the original pink and teal pavers underfoot, the lobby/formal dining room, the main bathroom and the kitchen each open to the outside and, in turn, inward to the central hallway.
Interestingly, none of the Beckett boys had ever seen these native pristine native timber floors that had been hidden beneath carpet until they re-decorated the house for sale.
In October 2013, Wilf Beckett passed away at the age of 100, 14 years after he handed ownership of the property to his three sons.
