Overview
Wellington’s city centre is renowned for its thriving café scene, cosmopolitan culture, and diversity of people. In the 1980s a new generation of late night coffee drinkers emerged. Alongside the nightclub boom of the 1970s and 1980s, locals and visitors to the city were presented with an increasingly wide variety of late night entertainment options. Many of these places are represented in the collages Chrissy Witoko made and hung in the Evergreen Coffee House - all of which are now at Te Papa.
Nightclubs, coffee bars and everything in between
The Vivian-Cuba Street quarter increasingly emerged as the red light district. From the 1960s, nightclubs, strip clubs, late night coffee bars with dance floors, and hotel taverns all provided night-time entertainment, and gave rise to some of Wellington’s most famous (and infamous) establishments.
For those wishing to party on after the licensed bars closed (at 11:30pm), late night coffee bars began to covertly sell unlicensed alcohol – known as sly grog. Coffee was often laced with whisky, or alcohol was sold straight from teapots or served in coffee cups. Bars were subsequently subject to police raids. The demand for special coffee lessened with the passing of the Sale of Liquor Act 1989, which allowed licensed alcohol to be sold around the clock.
Carmen’s reign: Carmen’s Coffee Lounge and The Balcony
Perhaps most infamous was Carmen’s Coffee Lounge, owned by well-known transgender personality Carmen Rupe, and located (ironically) beside the Salvation Army at 86 Vivian Street. It was famous for its coffee and toasted sandwiches downstairs, but also for the brothel upstairs. Even though homosexuality was illegal in New Zealand until 1986, café patrons used a cups code to signal their sexual preference: cup upside down for heterosexual sex, on its side for transsexual or drag queen, and placed underneath its saucer for a gay liaison. The business was renamed Carmen’s New International Coffee Lounge when it relocated to 144 Vivian Street in 1979.
Of all Carmen’s establishments, the largest was The Balcony nightclub, which opened in the late 1960s on the corner of Victoria and Harris Streets (site of Wellington’s Central Public Library). The Balcony accommodated up to 400 guests who came to watch the strip shows, comic acts, fire dancers, belly dancing and drag performances. Like many striptease shows, most of The Balcony’s performers were transgendered, and audiences often believed they were watching women perform.
The Purple Onion
A number of smaller strip clubs operated in this period, most notably the Purple Onion, Club Exotique, Playgirls, and later Tiffany’s. The Purple Onion was particularly significant to Wellington’s transgender community. It was opened in 1964 by Carmen’s friend Pasi Tunupopo, who had previously performed in the male revue ‘Les Girls’ cabaret show in Sydney’s Kings Cross (established 1963). The club was the first red light venue in Wellington to showcase drag queen striptease, and was where Carmen and her Sydney entourage first made their mark on the adult entertainment scene.
Sorrento, Ali Baba’s (Cave) and the two Sunsets
Located at 81 Ghuznee Street, the Sorrento Coffee Bar opened in the 1960s as a racier establishment of the coffee shop scene; it flouted liquor laws with coffee cups, was raided by police, and was reportedly a favourite hangout of Wellington’s petty criminals. Seamen and ship crews also frequented the club, and like other coffee bars and nightclubs, was used by sex workers to pick up clients. Dancing took place in two rooms called Heaven and Hell – the latter was described by patrons as the mainly Maori side, but the two rooms rarely interacted.
The Sorrento was bought by Sue and Doug Timbs with Chrissy Witoko in 1967. It was renamed the Sunset Strip, and provided another popular hangout for transsexuals and homosexuals, until it burnt down in the 1970s. The business reopened in 1981 as the Sunset Disco (the Cave) upstairs at 171 Cuba Street, the old site of Ali Baba’s (now San Francisco Bath House). The popular nightclub Ali Baba’s, which closed in 1977, was also known as the Cave – after its cave-like interior of stalactites and stalagmites.
The Evergreen – a gathering place
Many of the above hotspots were gathering places for Wellington’s LGBTQI+ communities, as well as sex workers coming off their shifts. The Evergreen Coffee House in particular provided a safe, relaxed space for people of any background and identity to socialise and unwind.
The Evergreen was owned by Chrissy Witoko, who also operated the late night coffee bar the Nutcracker (opened 1989) at 154 Vivian Street. Chrissy took over ownership of 144 Vivian Street in 1984 following Carmen’s retirement in 1980. She established the café downstairs, and lived with her family in the upstairs apartment. In 1990, the Evergreen moved next door to 146 Vivian Street, until the café closed in the late 1990s.
So while the Evergreen competitively boasted the 'best toasted sandwiches in town', Chrissy’s priority across her establishments was always to ensure a gay and transsexual-friendly social environment.
Homosexuality gradually became more accepted in New Zealand during this period, expressed most strongly by the passing of the 1986 Homosexual Law Reform Act. However, it was still difficult to find public places totally accepting of gay, lesbian and transgender people. Places like the Evergreen therefore became extremely important to LGBTQI+ communities. When New Zealand’s first organisation for homosexual men, the Dorian Society closed in 1986, Chrissy offered the Evergreen as the new site for Wellington’s gay and lesbian community centre (1986-1989). The café would open early for the social club, and after 11.00pm was a drop-in centre for sex workers.
Te Papa works in collaboration with LGBTI communities and individuals to discover the histories represented in the panels. If you have any information you would like to share in relation to the panels please contact a history curator at Te Papa on +64 (0)4 381 7000.