Helen Hitchings inspecting a portrait of herself on display in her Gallery

I’ve simply furnished an extremely large room, landing, and stairway with articles mainly designed and made for the project … the room has a yellow ceiling, white painted brick walls, two partition walls, of which one is dull blue and the other buff. It has grey doors, windows, and beams, and some terracotta shelving.

Helen Hitchings, 2YA Women’s Session interview, 1950

Helen Hitchings and Ernst Plischke transformed a Victorian warehouse in Bond Street, Wellington, into a colourful venue for regularly changing art exhibitions, and even lunchtime concerts and poetry readings.

In one image, Hitchings holds a cat similar to E Mervyn Taylor’s Marmaduke.