Welcome to Auckland’s original ‘Municipal Destructor’. Everyone, like me, know it as Victoria Park Market – a super popular open air market through the 80's to 2000's – a great place to buy your crystals and tie-dies etc! I've always known that it was originally the city rubbish dump – when the city was waaaay smaller). There is more to the story, of course. It was originally created in reaction to a bubonic plague scare in Sydney. For sanitary reasons it was built to burn Auckland’s rubbish and waste while using the heat generated to provide electricity to power the city. Sounds pretty clever eh, and I guess we were plague free. However, we must have been breathing some seriously toxic smoke fumes! That 38 metre tall chimney must have helped a little but don't forget all the horse manure and night carts, they were definitely smellier times. The municipal destructor is now a gentrified place that's home to restaurants and businesses, like the superb Milenta restau...
She's a bit run-down and worse for wear, her nipples no longer flash and the clock above her no longer keeps 'Vegas Time'. A bit like Karangahape Road in general really, it still has it's moments (as I sketched a couple of working fa'afafine casually looked over my shoulder to check out what I was up to), and the brass lettering beside the door boldly proclaims 'Australasia's Premier Striptease Club', it's all a bit optimistic I think!
The Las Vegas Strip is one of the last remaining clubs from the streets seedy 60's and 70's heyday as Auckland's red-light strip. When I heard the place was on the market, I thought I'd try to capture that infamous sign before it disappears forever. With any luck it might go the way of a neighbour, the The Pink Pussy Cat and get redeveloped as an art gallery.
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