Wellington's bucket fountain celebrates half a century of splashing pedestrians

The iconic fountain is now looked on with a bit more fondness.

The architect behind Wellington landmark the Cuba Street Bucket Fountain never thought the sculpture would reach its 50th anniversary tomorrow.

"I didn't think people would want it to be there for that long and it was never built of materials intended to last that long," architect Graham Allardice said.

As a 28-year-old employee of Burren and Keene, Mr Allardice was given a brief to create a water feature for the opening of the pedestrianised Cuba Mall part of Cuba St in 1969.

The Bucket Fountain was made for $2000 at the time, featuring steel tubing, fibreglass tipping buckets and a beaten aluminium water container.

"The buckets were just a whole ... like a series of tipping leaves really almost blowing in the wind," he said of the design.

Mr Allardice wanted the large bucket at the bottom to tip all the water onto the surrounding pavement, but was not allowed.

To this day, he advocates for the original cream coloured buckets that were painted over in bright colours at council's word a few days after it was complete, though he says this could be a "killjoy" move.

"Oh I thought it was a bit tacky frankly, not terribly good taste, especially when the buckets became multicoloured," he said.

"We knew that a lot of people would hate it but hopefully some people would like it and that proved to be the case."

A month after opening, the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation interviewed Mr Living about complaints over the sculpture and the vandalism it had attracted.

"Mr Living, what are you going to do with your water mobile now that it's become the aim of every vandal in the city it would seem?"

"Well, we're going to try and do our best to get on top of them and we will keep the water mobile unit going as long as we possibly can," he said to the reporter.

It was described as an 'engineering joke' and 'monstrosity' at the time by some, but Mr Living said it was like a spacecraft, and no worse than modern statues seen around the capital at the time.

"Everybody in Wellington will really think that it's something worthwhile and that at last Wellington's got something of interest in it, I think something that hasn't happened in Wellington for at least 50 years," Mr Living said.

"It was there for one purpose and that was to entertain; it wasn't there as an artwork and sometimes people say, "Oh well, as an artwork..." Nobody claimed it was an artwork," architect Graham Allardice said.

Since then the structure has continued to be plagued by mischief, been covered in clay as part of a documentary, adorned with flowers, filled with fake blood and entertained children throughout the decades.

It's also featured in mockumentary Wellington Paranormal, where the "Gates of Hell" have been said to open up within the sculpture, and Bic Runga's 'Something Good' music video.

Mr Allardice said the clay art installation was when the fountain was at its best.

"I was also very, very entertained when people put soap suds in it and dogs got in the pool. I thought all of that was just excellent," he said.

The splashing of passers-by was a deliberate decision, he said.

"I like it splashing, if you wanted an efficient way of getting water from here to here you'd put it in a blasted pipe, wouldn't you."

Historian Gabor Tóth said apart from a couple of colour scheme changes and bucket replacements, the structure has remained the same.

Mr Tóth said the cost of keeping it running is a challenge for council, but hoped the fountain would keep running for another 50 years.

"It has polarised people though I think there are more lovers than there are haters," he said.

Mr Tóth said he also hoped Cuba Mall would retain its gritty edge and alternative cultures in the future.

"It will remain quirky, it will remain alternative, the fashion will change but the attitude will remain the same," he said.

Cuba Mall was pedestrianised in 1969 after a successful petition from business owners who found sales increased when the street was temporarily pedestrianised to remove tram tracks.

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