Sir Peter Jackson, Dame Fran Walsh gift Wellington national music centre $2 million

“This amazing new facility has far more significance than just being an old building that’s been converted into a recording studio. Twelve years ago, we recorded the music for our Hobbit movies in the old Town Hall with the NZSO and the help of London’s Abbey Road studios and several of their best sound engineers.

“After they’d spent a couple of weeks analysing the auditorium, the Abbey Road engineers declared Wellington’s old Town Hall to be ‘one of the best acoustic spaces’ they had ever encountered.

“Think about that for a moment – when the Town Hall was built, microphones and tape recorders didn’t exist, they hadn’t been invented. It was built to be a live performance venue with the sound of every voice and instrument bouncing perfectly from wall to wall.

“Those clever Victorians sure understood the complex science of acoustic engineering.”

There’s no date yet for when the Town Hall will reopen.

The Town Hall was declared quake-prone in 2009, and it was closed in 2013 following the Seddon earthquake, with strengthening work starting in 2019.