Majestic on Durham

About this place

Majestic on Durham is a multi-space event venue at 189 Durham Street South, Christchurch, sitting opposite South City Shopping Centre and roughly a kilometre from the central city. It operates as both a church home (Majestic Church) and a commercial hire venue, and it is regularly used for conferences, performances, expos, dinners and large social gatherings.

The spaces

The building is a converted industrial complex, and the fit-out has kept the exposed brick and timber of its former life. Rather than a single hall, the site offers several distinct spaces:

• The auditorium — the main room, configurable for different event formats. Published figures indicate seating for up to around 500, with an overall venue capacity of up to about 700, and seated dinners in the range of 250–300 depending on whether a band and dance floor are used.
• A renovated warehouse space — a smaller room quoted at up to around 240 people, well suited to smaller conferences, dance showcases and social functions.
• "25" — a space with a stage and professional production equipment, set up for shows and conferences.
• Mace Space — an indoor sports arena, useful for activity-based or community programming.

Facilities

In-house sound, lighting and visual equipment is provided across the venue, with production gear described by the operator as high-specification — which keeps AV costs contained for organisers who would otherwise hire in. There is a full industrial kitchen on site capable of handling catering, plus a three-group commercial coffee machine, and a recording studio. Off-street parking is available, which is a genuine advantage for a venue this close to the central city.

Suitability

Majestic on Durham is a flexible, characterful and comparatively unfussy option for Christchurch organisers running conferences, seminars, awards evenings, gala dinners, product launches, expos or performances. The combination of an auditorium at meaningful scale, smaller breakout-capable rooms, in-house catering infrastructure and resident AV makes it practical for single-day and multi-stream events. There is no accommodation on site, so residential conferences would draw on central Christchurch hotels.