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Finishing touches made to Bar Bodega

7 November 2006

Restoration work on 286 Willis Street, relocated as part of Transit's Wellington Inner City Bypass project, is almost complete.
 
Best known as 'Bodega', a popular Wellington entertainment venue in the 1990s, the building was moved approximately 25 metres from its original position on the corner of Willis and Abel Smith Streets and still has the original 'Twin Sisters', 282 and 284 Willis Street, as its neighbours.

Transit New Zealand project manager Jonnette Adams said that once the finishing touches are completed, this iconic Te Aro building would have been completely restored back to its original condition.

"The external painting is complete, the 1930s butcher's tiles have been returned to the façade and a new verandah is being installed."

"It's great to see such an iconic Wellington Building be restored to its former glory. The two buildings that 'flank' the Bar Bodega building are believed to be designed by the same architect, Francis Petty, and it is appropriate that they have remained together following their relocation and restoration," she said.

Number 286 Willis Street is one of 18 heritage buildings relocated and restored as part of the $40 million Wellington Inner City Bypass project.

For further information please contact:

Jonnette Adams
Project Manager
Transit New Zealand
DDI: 04 801 2598
Email: jonnette.adams@transit.govt.nz

Rebecca Collerton
Communications Advisor
Transit New Zealand
DDI: 04 801 2521
Email: rebecca.collerton@transit.govt.nz

Background Notes

History of Bar Bodega

A string of chemists first traded out of the Edwardian corner shop, now known as the former Bar Bodega, on the corner of Willis and Abel Smith Streets.

Heritage inventories at the Wellington City Council Library show that Bodega was built around 1890 and first occupied by chemist Robert Burn in 1894. Successive chemists used the premises to ply their trade until the early 1920's.

A variety of small businesses, including fruiterers and tobacconists, used the premises from the 1920s until 1937, while the upstairs accommodation was divided into small flats.

In 1937, John Lindberg converted the ground floor into a butchery and it remained in that usage off-and-on for 54 years.  It is probably during this conversion that the tiled mural was installed on the building's façade.  This mural is being conserved and will be reinstated as part of the shop's restoration.  Among butcheries in the building were Boyd's Quality Butchers and McKnight Meats.

The National Roads Board (now Transit New Zealand) acquired ownership in 1981 for roading purposes.  A decade later, Fraser McInnes leased the building and opened a popular café/bar and live performance venue - Bodega.  This business has now shifted to new premises in Ghuznee Street.

The heritage inventory shows Bodega as a rusticated weatherboard building with an authentic bull-nosed veranda, cast iron posts wrapping around the corner and a prominent parapet.  It describes the shop as having "large representative significance as a typical small retail building of its period".

The rear of the shop, added on in the 1990's, was demolished in March 2005 to prepare the original building for relocation.  Once restored, the shop will again be available for use.

 

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