The Colonial Gallery
Original photo © Russell Museum
The charming Colonial Gallery is no more. It stood on the corner of Chapel and York Streets from 1967–76. Jim and Pauline Yearbury, both artists, ran the gallery and sold paintings, pottery, sculpture, handcrafts and antiques according to their card. The gallery’s phone number was 168.
In earlier life the building was owned by Frank Clow, who sold to Mrs Edrie Boucher. In turn her daughter, Hope, and Frank Miller, her husband, took it over in 1945. They ran a popular tearooms, home cookery and grocery for sixteen years.
Eventually the little building was demolished and a tavern built in 1976. The site became a parking area with fill added from the slopes of Te Maiki.
The lamppost is still with us. Mr and Mrs J Garland brought it from Auckland in the 1940s. They built a house in York St (now South Sea Art) and had the lamppost outside. Jim Yearbury later gave it to the Russell Museum where it still stands on its York Street frontage.
