Old Courthouse Eatery

Brief

Horowhenua District Council contracted Essence to convert Levin's historic courthouse into a working eatery. The building had already been saved once, moved and restored rather than demolished, so the job here was to give it a working second life without erasing what made it worth saving: fitting a commercial kitchen, a service line and a dining room inside walls that were built for a courtroom.

Project Description

Built in 1903 from native matai and tōtara, the Levin Courthouse originally stood on Bristol Street. In 2007 it was gifted to Horowhenua District Council and relocated to the Nola Simpson Rose Gardens on Cambridge Street, where it now sits at 85 Cambridge Street looking out over the gardens.

Essence designed the conversion. Once Fi Grieg took the tenancy and brought her own hospitality experience to the project, the layout and the commercial kitchen were worked through together, designed around how a chef actually moves during service rather than just how it looks on a plan. Materials and finishes were bounced back and forth between us as the design settled. Fi then took on the interior styling herself, and it shows.

The high ceilings and original timber detailing stayed exactly where they were, doing the work they have always done. Around them the room picks up a new rhythm: a long olive green counter anchoring the space, timber tables and green chairs, hanging plants and a good amount of glass. Outside, a sunny timber deck opens the building towards the rose gardens, so the eatery reads as part of the gardens rather than a box beside them.

Result

Heritage and hospitality in the same room, with neither apologising for the other. The Old Courthouse Eatery now trades from 85 Cambridge Street, Levin, feeding people in a building that has been part of the town since 1903.