Skip to content 
Updated 2026 · Hastings, New Zealand · Estimated read: 12 min
Napier gets the fame. Its Art Deco streets draw the crowds, the vintage cars, and the festival every February. Twenty minutes inland, Hastings holds a version of the same story that far fewer people stop to read. This guide to Art Deco Hastings is written for the travellers who want the whole picture, not just the postcard half of it.
Both towns were rebuilt after the same disaster. The 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake flattened much of the region in a matter of minutes, and what rose in its place was a wave of Art Deco, Spanish Mission, and Stripped Classical architecture that has aged into something rare. Hastings was damaged badly, rebuilt fast, and today its centre carries more than two hundred buildings from that period.
What follows is the background to how it happened, the styles to look for, the specific buildings worth seeking out, and how to walk the town’s heritage on foot. Hastings is compact, flat, and easy to explore in an afternoon, which is part of what makes it such a satisfying place to slow down in.
Plan the Wider Trip
Hastings Travel Guide — Everything You Need to Know Before Visiting
Taupo Travel Guide — Everything You Need to Know Before Visiting
Auckland Travel Guide — Everything You Need to Know Before Visiting
The Earthquake That Rebuilt Hastings
At 10.47am on 3 February 1931, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Hawke’s Bay. It lasted around two and a half minutes, centred about fifteen kilometres north of Napier. It killed 256 people and remains the deadliest natural disaster in New Zealand’s history. Fires broke out in the aftermath and destroyed much of what the shaking had spared.
Napier took the worst of it and is the town most associated with the tragedy. Hastings was hit hard too. Its centre had grown into a substantial shopping district built largely in unreinforced masonry, and that masonry failed almost instantly. Buildings collapsed across the town, and lives were lost here as well.
What happened next is the reason this guide exists. Hastings rebuilt at remarkable speed. By the end of 1932, well over two hundred new buildings stood where the rubble had been. The town used the moment to remake its centre in the architectural language of the day, which is why Art Deco Hastings feels so unusually consistent. It was built almost all at once, by people who wanted to look forward rather than back.
Understanding the Styles
The rebuild was not purely Art Deco. It was a mix of several related styles that were fashionable in the early 1930s, and learning to tell them apart makes walking the streets far more rewarding.
Art Deco is the dominant style and the one people come for. It favours clean geometry, stepped ziggurat shapes, sunbursts, fountains, and speed stripes that suggest movement and modernity. The decoration is bold but flat, worked into the plaster rather than added on top.
Spanish Mission arrived from California, borrowed from the rebuild of Santa Barbara after its own 1925 earthquake. Look for arched windows, colonnades, textured stucco, and low-pitched tiled roofs. The Russell Street block that runs beside the railway line is the strongest concentration of it in Hastings.
Stripped Classical keeps the symmetry and proportion of classical architecture but strips away the ornament, leaving something clean and restrained. It sits quietly between the other two and is easy to miss until you start looking for it.
The Buildings to See in Art Deco Hastings
The centre is small enough that all of these sit within a short walk of one another. Here are the ones worth slowing down for.
The Hastings Clock Tower
The clock tower on Russell Street South is the natural starting point. Built in 1935 and designed by Sidney Chaplin, it is a fine example of mid-1930s Art Deco Moderne. Look closely at the detail: a saw-tooth pattern that draws the eye upward, speed stripes in each corner, and the borough coat of arms above the door. It carries a Category 1 Heritage New Zealand listing, and plaques added later remember those who died in the 1931 quake.
Westerman’s Building
On the corner of Russell Street South and Heretaunga Street East stands Westerman’s Building, one of the most recognisable facades in town. For years it housed the visitor centre, and it remains a landmark for orienting yourself in the centre. It anchors the eastern end of the main shopping street and rewards a look up above the shopfronts, where the original detailing survives.
The Russell Street Spanish Mission Block
The stretch of Russell Street beside the railway line is the best Spanish Mission architecture in Hastings. Five of the eight buildings here were destroyed in the earthquake and rebuilt in the same style, which gives the block a rare unity. Arts Inc. Heretaunga, a community gallery, occupies part of it now, so you can step inside as well as admire the exterior.
Toitoi and the Opera House
Toitoi, the Hawke’s Bay Arts and Events Centre, is the beating heart of the town’s cultural life. It brings together two historic buildings, the Opera House and the Municipal Building. The Opera House dates to 1915 and predates the earthquake, which it survived. Both buildings were closed in 2014 as earthquake risks, then saved rather than demolished through a forty million dollar restoration that reopened them in 2022.
Inside the Municipal Building, the Assembly Room is the quiet showpiece, with Edwardian detailing and a sprung dance floor that is a genuine rarity today. The precinct is worth visiting for an evening event, a drink in the laneways, or simply to see how a town chose to keep its history rather than clear it away.
If you would rather have the stories told to you, guided heritage and Art Deco tours across Hawke’s Bay can be booked through the OneLife Viator shop, which pulls together the better rated local operators in one place.
Practical Tip
Look up. Most of the surviving heritage in Hastings sits above the modern shopfronts, where later renovations never reached. The ground floor might be a phone shop or a cafe, but the two storeys above it often carry the original 1930s facade almost untouched.
Walking the Heritage Trail
The best way to experience Art Deco Hastings is on foot, and the town makes it simple. The centre is flat and compact, and a self-guided heritage walk loops through the eastern and western sides of the main streets, taking in the clock tower, Westerman’s, the Russell Street block, and dozens of smaller facades along the way. Allow an hour at an easy pace, longer if you stop for coffee, which you should.
The Hastings District Council publishes a free heritage walk map covering the route and the stories behind each building. It is worth having in hand before you start, since much of the pleasure is in knowing what you are looking at. You can find the current trail and event listings through the Toitoi and Hastings District Council pages.
Bring a camera, or just your phone. The low light of early morning and late afternoon is when the plasterwork and the geometric detail come alive, throwing shadows that flatten out under the midday sun. A slower compact travel camera suits this kind of wandering, though the streets forgive whatever you carry.
Hastings or Napier for Art Deco
The honest answer is both, since they are twenty minutes apart and tell two halves of one story. Napier is the more complete and more famous Art Deco town, rebuilt almost entirely in the style and polished for visitors over decades. It is genuinely worth the visit, and its concentration is hard to match anywhere.
Hastings offers something quieter. Fewer crowds, less curation, and the sense of discovering the architecture rather than being shown it. For travellers who like a place they can read for themselves, Art Deco Hastings is often the more rewarding of the two. Most people who come to the region see both and are glad they did.
When to Visit
The architecture is there year round, so the timing depends on the atmosphere you want. February brings the region’s famous Art Deco Festival, centred on Napier, when the whole area dresses in period costume and vintage cars fill the streets. It is a spectacle, and it spills into Hastings as well, though it books out well ahead.
Outside the festival, autumn from March to May is the sweet spot for wandering the streets in comfortable weather with few other people around. Whenever you come, the heritage sits alongside the wineries, Te Mata Peak, and the coast, so an architecture morning slots easily into a wider Hawke’s Bay trip. If you are still shaping that trip, the full Hastings travel guide covers where to stay, what it costs, and how to get here.
SMALL IMAGE · Detail of Art Deco plasterwork, sunburst and speed stripe motif above a Heretaunga Street shopfront
ALT: Art Deco Hastings plasterwork detail on Heretaunga StreetThe detail is in the plaster, worked into the facade rather than added on.
Keep Exploring the North Island
3 Day Itinerary Taupo and Tongariro, New Zealand
Where to Stay in Taupo, New Zealand — Best Areas Explained
Waitomo Travel Guide — Everything You Need to Know Before Visiting
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Hastings have Art Deco architecture?
The 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake destroyed much of the town centre, which had been built in unreinforced masonry. Hastings rebuilt quickly, and by the end of 1932 more than two hundred new buildings stood in the styles fashionable at the time, chiefly Art Deco and Spanish Mission.
Is Hastings or Napier better for Art Deco?
Napier is more complete and more famous, rebuilt almost entirely in the style. Hastings is quieter and less curated, which many visitors find more rewarding to explore. They are twenty minutes apart, so seeing both is easy and worthwhile.
How long does the Hastings heritage walk take?
Around an hour at an easy pace, covering the clock tower, Westerman’s Building, the Russell Street block, and the surrounding facades. Allow longer if you stop for coffee or step into the galleries along the way.
What is the difference between Art Deco and Spanish Mission?
Art Deco uses bold geometry, sunbursts, and speed stripes to suggest modern movement. Spanish Mission draws on Californian influences, with arched windows, colonnades, and textured stucco. Both appear in Hastings, often on the same street.
When is the Art Deco Festival?
The main Art Deco Festival runs in February each year, centred on Napier but spilling across the region. It fills the streets with vintage cars and period costume, and accommodation books out well ahead, so plan early if you want to be there for it.
Final Thoughts on Art Deco Hastings
There is something quietly moving about a town built out of its own worst day. The architecture of Hastings is beautiful on its own terms, but it means more once you know that every clean geometric line went up in the wake of a disaster that took hundreds of lives.
It is not a museum. People shop here, work here, drink here in the laneways of a restored opera house. The heritage is woven into an ordinary working town, which is exactly why it rewards the traveller willing to look up and pay attention.
Give Art Deco Hastings a slow morning on foot, ideally with the low light of early or late day on the facades. It asks very little and gives back more than its reputation suggests, which is usually the sign of a place worth the detour.
This post contains affiliate links. If you book or purchase through them I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
