Hummingbird has been on Courtenay Place for a long time (twelve years!), and has just undergone a complete refurbishment. The Wellingtonista was invited along to check out the revitalised space and new menu, and what we found was very very good. In their own words: The site was once, many decades ago, a butcher’s shop […]
The park in Courtenay Place sees a lot of action during the day – random interpretive dances, fucking annoying people with megaphones who are apparently trying to recruit people to their gym (but I’m sure they must have been hired by the competition because there’s no way anyone who works on Courtenay Place would want […]
The little side street at the Taranaki Street end of Courtenay Place has been due for big changes for a while, and now it all looks like it’s finally happening. In June, work will start on closing the street and turning it into a pocket park: more details will be released by the council in a couple of weeks. Also, the long-abandoned toilet block which has been the subject of various suggestions over the years (including, hilariously, wetarium and sexual health museum), will undergo a more predictable but nonetheless welcome transformation. Ian “Ferg” Ferguson will convert it into a wine bar by doubling the underground space, lining the walls with wine racks and adding an outdoor drinking area on the roof. This work will also start in June and is expected to open by Christmas under the name “Wine Cellar” (WC for short, of course). If only the walls could speak!
But the first change that we’ll see here is the opening of the first downtown Wellington branch of Burger Fuel. That explains the loud drooling noises emanating from Wellingtonista towers. There’s no official word on the opening date, but construction work looks well advanced, so I’d guess that it’s just a few weeks away. Mmm, booze, burgers and a sunny park: that’s got to be better than a turning lane and a handful of car parks.