‘A race against demolition by neglect’: Inside the battle for Auckland’s St James Theatre

Sunday, 10 August 2025

When Steve Bielby took over Auckland’s St James Theatre in 2014 at just 29, the building had already sat empty and unused for seven years. What followed was a decade-long “race against demolition by neglect”. Speaking to Stuff ahead of the theatre’s restoration, starting next month, Bielby reveals just how close he came to pulling the plug.

Posing for a photo on the ‘throne’ where Queen Elizabeth II sat during her visits to the theatre, Steve Bielby says he’d prefer we not call him the King of St James.

“The cleaner of St James is probably more fitting.”

That’s because when he isn’t sat around the polished 40,000-year-old swamp kauri table in the makeshift boardroom making important decisions about its future, Bielby is mopping up leaks, repairing smashed windows and getting the place ready for builders to move in.

Finally.

Bielby has advocated for the 1928-built theatre’s restoration since he bought it aged 29 in 2014.

“It’s been a real fight. I've had politicians have quiet conversations with me, asking me just to quietly demolish it, and then politicians, not so quietly, tell me to demolish it.”

The restoration is expected to cost $49 million and take 30 months to complete. Auckland Council and the Government have each committed $15m towards the project.

But for Bielby, the St James is more than just a project. For a decade, the theatre has ruled his life, so much so that people often call him James instead of Steve.

The now 39-year-old was sent the council and government funding agreements to sign the day before he attended the UK’s Glastonbury music festival last year.

“I spent the whole time at Glastonbury being like, do I really want to do this?

“It was quite inspiring actually. It was a good venue to make that decision that, yeah, I want to do this.”

Bielby is well-qualified to take on such a challenge, with a Master of Business Administration specialising in finance and a Master of Laws specialising in environmental and resource management law.

Had he wanted it, he could have followed in his father’s footsteps and worked for the family business, Target Furniture.

“The reality is, in management of a big company like that, you end up spending less time doing the things you really like and more time doing the administration.”

The hands-on nature of the St James renovation was more his style.

“I’ve naturally always been drawn to the projects that are a challenge.

“Until you solve all the pieces of the puzzle, the buildings sit there and deteriorate. It’s sort of a race against demolition by neglect.”

Bielby recalled seeing shows such as Cats and The Buddy Holly Show at the theatre as a kid. He would later go there for concerts (Shapeshifter, Salmonella Dub and Shihad, to name a few) and dance parties as a university student.

“It kind of turned into a nightclub, dive bar sort of thing.

“It’s a bit sad for the students coming through today. They don’t have a St James.”

While the doors to the theatre formally closed in 2007 after a fire, Bielby put on about 20 concerts in 2016 - including Violent Femmes, Leon Bridges, Death Cab for Cutie and Jamie XX - to “show people that the building wasn’t completely lost”.

He has also taken personal advantage of owning such a cool building, using it for a Halloween party a couple of years ago.

“We got 150 of us together and hired people to dress up in costumes and scare people… We got a DJ to come in and play. It was just fun. The derelict theatre suited a Halloween party.”

It was after a burglary in 2022 that almost saw Bielby give up on his dream of bringing the theatre back to life.

“They stole a lot of scrap out of the building, like a lot of electrical copper. They were obviously pretty skilled because they managed to isolate the building from electricity.

“That was a scary point for me.”

Bielby had also made personal sacrifices while keeping up the momentum during the whole of his 30s.

“It’s a pretty key part of your life, that sort of age… It’s your energetic time, it’s when you’ve got the energy to do something like this.

“There have been a few points where I’ve been like ‘OK, should I stop this?’ The toll it takes on you personally, is it worth it?

“I hope at the end of it, it is. I’ll be pretty gutted if it’s not.”

While the revamped St James will have modern amenities, Bielby says they will be balanced with materials and colour schemes authentic to the building’s historic fabric.

“It's irreplaceable. If we built a new theatre today, we'd never build it like this. I just think it's got a certain soul about it.

“Our vision is 1928, opening day… You go back to that point in time, otherwise you end up with a mishmash of a building.”

For the theatre to sustain itself, St James will need to be more than a theatre alone, Bielby said.

“I’d love to see things like a graduation here during the day and a rock concert at night. The next night might be a TED talk or a comedian.”

He hoped commercial activities would pay the bills, allowing communities to use the theatre at a subsidised price.

“There’s a shrinking pot of public funding available for arts [and] culture, and there’s more and more projects and organisations being funnelled into that pot.”

Looking down into the theatre’s auditorium from the royal box, where two diggers are parked and waiting to get stuck in, Bielby feels relieved.

“It’s starting to happen. I’ve got diggers, I’ve got toys to play with.

“Now we’ve got to make good on everything that we’ve said.”