In 1936, the Council received a proposal to build a combined bathing pavilion and band rotunda at Oriental Bay on the platform then occupied by the old Town Hall rotunda.
In 1938, the building was completed following a design by the Council's Engineer’s Department that included separate changing rooms for men, women, boys and girls.
For the next 40 years, the building retained its dual uses but by the 1970s it was showing its age.
In 1982, the Council decided to:
- add a second floor and a roof to the building to create a new public space
- convert the bathing pavilion's changing rooms on the ground floor into a meeting room for local residents.
Although the addition changed the building, its Moderne features remain intact and it remains a key landmark along Wellington’s ‘Riviera’.
In 1985, the top floor opened as a restaurant.
Since 1985, the meeting room on the ground floor has been used variously for local residents' meetings, and as an art gallery and a teaching space.
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