Time called at the 'Gardies'

The Gardens. Photo by Peter McIntosh.

When closing time is called tonight on Dunedin student watering hole The Gardens, it will be the end of a tavern that has seen huge changes in the way New Zealanders drink.

• Party over at the Gardies 

Opened in 1970, The Gardens was the city's first purpose-built tavern, providing drinks but no accommodation.

It was also designed to take advantage of extended opening hours - its landscaped gardens and restaurant-style meals reflecting the move just a few years earlier from the "6 o'clock swill" to 10pm closing.

Its large size - 5500 sq ft of customer space with 60 carparks - might be unusual these days when there is an emphasis on the dangers of drinking and driving.

But original owner John Farry says not only had suburban taverns been identified as a gap in the market but developers were required to provide a certain amount of parking.

"You couldn't build a nice little bar in the middle of town.

For one thing, you had to have parking ...

So the so-called booze barns were a direct result of the legislation as it was framed ...

The Gardens, Mornington and Fairfield [taverns] were all quite large customer spaces."

Later, the North Dunedin tavern became a much-loved student haunt but it was not originally planned that way.

"It was a student area then but not nearly to the extent it is now," Farry says.

The tavern had its beginnings in the 1960s with a report by the Licensing Control Commission that described Dunedin as a city "full of pitiful old pubs".

"It really got my back up," says the Dunedin businessman.

"But the fact was it was very largely true. There had been no upgrades and nothing new done for many years.

"The report suggested various locations that could warrant the establishment of a liquor outlet and North Dunedin was one of those locations."

As a result, Farry - acting on behalf of his family - bought land at the corner of Castle and Brooks streets, and the licence of the former Excelsior Hotel on the corner of Princes and Dowling streets.

He then applied to the commission to have the licence transferred to the new tavern.

Some Dunedin hotels had already converted to taverns, doing away with their accommodation after the Sale of Liquor Act in 1962 made this possible, he says.

But The Gardens was the first built from scratch.

An advertising feature published on December 12, 1970 - the day the doors opened - described the "handsome", two-storeyed brick premises as taking advantage of natural light and views of the Botanic Garden.

Built for $250,000, the tavern featured a garden, where drinks could be taken, and an orange and brown interior colour scheme.