Most “pop-up shops” emerge in vacant retail spaces, but The Prin­cess’ Bed­room was dif­fer­ent: the shop itself popped up, in the form of a brightly-painted cara­van in a grav­elly old Ghuznee St car­park. Now it has com­pany, in the form of a “Saus­age Sizzle” cara­van in the adja­cent park­ing space, serving an odd com­bin­a­tion of Kiwiana saus­age sarnies, tem­pura veget­ables and hearty soups & stews.

Neither this cara­van nor its girli­er neigh­bour fit in with the emer­ging high­brow design­er vibe across the street (Milk Crate, Quilters, Cus­toms and Bowen Gal­ler­ies), but it sure beats a puddle-rid­den car­park. Per­haps we’ll see more of this cara­van urb­an­ism set­ting up tem­por­ary shop in vacant spaces until we crawl our way out of the reces­sion, and it looks like a cheap and flex­ible way for small busi­nesses to get up & run­ning in the gaps and fringes of the city.