NZHistory.net.nz, New Zealand history online - cafes

Wellington cafe culture

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Overview - Wellington cafe culture

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Wellington city centre is today renowned for its flourishing café scene and the culture surrounding it. But that hasn't always been the case. Prior to the 1950s there was little sign of the sparkling capital that exists today. The café culture that emerged that decade declined in the 1960s and 70s, before rallying strongly in the 1980s and 90s.

Dining out - food in New Zealand

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Eat, drink and be merry: dining out in 20th Century New Zealand

Post-war sophistication

Before the 1960s, New Zealanders had a limited choice both of venue and of food if they wanted to dine out. Restaurants, cafes, dining rooms of hotels, tearooms, coffee shops and oyster bars served up a narrow menu of grilled meats and hearty desserts.

Design and technology

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Influence of design and technology on milk bars and cafés

Changes in layout

Milk bars were often fitted into the ground floor of long, narrow Victorian or Edwardian buildings. Individual booths began to appear, giving greater privacy for patrons. The bar generally stretched almost the entire length of the establishment, replicating the classic American public bar made familiar through exposure to Hollywood films.

Immigration and Society

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Coffee houses in Wellington from the 1940s

A menu from the French Maid Coffee House

From the mid to late 1940s an affinity for coffee, and the places that dispensed it, spread through Wellington and continued into the 1960s. From the mid 1970s until the late 1980s, though, the café scene all but disappeared.

Music and cafe culture

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Musicians at Monde Marie coffee house

Personalities

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Some Wellington café personalities

The spectacular growth of cafés in the 1950s played a crucial role in the general 'opening up' of New Zealand society. It contributed to the relaxation of licensing laws in the 1960s and to the corresponding increase in numbers and types of

Further information

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This web feature was edited and expanded by Amy Donald and produced by the NZHistory.net.nz team.

The content is based on a group project about Wellington café culture 1920-2000 produced by seven Master of Public History students from Victoria University of Wellington in 2000. The results of their research were presented in a website exhibition. The original content from this web project can be accessed here as a PDF document.

The Miramar tea rooms

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Cafe atmosphere, cartoon

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