Newtown Community & Cultural Centre

Newtown Community & Cultural Centre — Te Whare Hapori o Ngā Puna Waiora — occupies the corner of Rintoul and Colombo Streets in the heart of Newtown, one of Wellington's most diverse inner suburbs. It is a community-owned and community-run centre, and its hire spaces are offered at deliberately competitive rates for both casual and regular bookings.

Spaces

The centre's range is unusually broad for a community venue. Hireable spaces run from a dance hall through to a fully functioning theatre, plus an art room and several meeting rooms. Named spaces include:

• Te Whare Kanikani (Dance Hall) — approximately 11.5 m by 7 m, with a stated capacity of 50 to 80 people.
• The theatre — fitted with an in-built sound system and PA, plus theatre and party lighting.
• Meeting rooms and an art room for smaller groups and workshops.

Hirers have access to a shared kitchen with hot water, ovens and a microwave, and to all-gender bathrooms including a wheelchair-accessible bathroom.

Hours and conditions

The office operates Monday to Friday, 9am to 4.30pm, but hires are facilitated well outside those hours — evenings and weekends included. Bookings run 8am to 10.30pm Sunday to Thursday and 8am to 11.30pm Friday and Saturday, with a strict 10.30pm noise curfew that event organisers should build into their run sheet.

Suitability

The centre hosts parties, theatre shows, gigs, workshops, classes, exercise sessions, hui, counselling and art groups. For meetings and events work, it suits community hui, training days, staff workshops, cultural performances and product launches wanting a genuinely local Wellington setting rather than a hotel ballroom. The combination of a proper theatre with PA, a large flat-floor hall and separate breakout rooms in one building is its main practical strength. Larger residential conferences will be better served by other Wellington venues.