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Café Bleu

Also known as: Zetland Hotel, Zetland Arms, New Zetland Hotel

Location: 88 Cashel Street, Central Christchurch

Christchurch Central, Christchurch 8011, New Zealand

Current Status: Demolished Post-Earthquake, site is currently part of the Container Mall

Active as a live music venue: 1970’s – 2000’s

Bar Manager: –

Bookings:

Website:

Capacity: –

All-Ages: No

On the site of one of the original Hotels opened in Christchurch, the Zetland Hotel was a popular bar, night club and music venue through the boom years of the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Cafe Bleu, January 2011 (from Kete Christchurch / Wikipedia)

The Hotel has a long and bizarre history, well documented on Stephen Symons’ literary pages.

With new proprietors the Hotel was renamed Cafe Bleu in 1990 and continued to operate as a venue, though by the late 1990’s this primarily meant regular covers acts.

History

  • 1862 Original Hotel on the site – known as Parkers’ Hotel was built.
  • 1865 Parkers’ Hotel becomes Zetland Arms Hotel.
  • 1888 Zetland Arms stable horseman William Harding dies after being kicked by a stabled horse.
  • 1901 Original building destroyed by fire.
  • 1902 New Zetland Hotel opens on old site.
  • 1921 Frank McAtavey falls to his death from an upstairs bathroom window.
  • 1973 M Mummery and D Robinson convert the Zetland Hotel into a nightclub.
  • 1990 The Zetland becomes Cafe Bleu.
  • 2011 Cafe Bleu is heavily damaged in the Canterbury Earthquake, with the external brick wall collapsing. The build is later demolished and replaced (at least temporarily) by the Container Mall.

Contact Details

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