Courtenay Place Precinct Plan

We're working with businesses and residents to make Courtenay Place a destination for everyone.

Courtenay Place has a proud history as Wellington’s gathering place – first as Te Aro Pā, and later as our leading entertainment district – but it has seen better days.

We’ve worked with stakeholders of Courtenay Place to develop a plan that will make Courtenay Place ‘our premier place to play’.

The plan will be implemented by the Council, our partners and the private sector to improve the look and feel of the precinct, make it safer, and showcase Courtenay Place’s diverse entertainment.

The good news is the revitalisation has already started, with a refurbished St James Theatre and the new Tākina Convention Centre.

Read more about the Courtenay Precinct Plan (8.28MB PDF).

Take 10 safe space

Take 10 is a space for partygoers to take a break while on the town to have some water, charge phones, and reconnect with friends or whanau. They can also get medical help or seek advice from our trained leaders and volunteers.

You'll find Take 10 on the corner of Taranaki Street and Courtenay Place on Friday and Saturday nights.

For more information, visit the Take 10 website.

Community clean ups

We coordinated a series of community clean ups in targeted locations in the central city, to make a visible improvement in the short term and bring pride to our shared environment.

By staging these clean ups in key areas of our city ahead of significant events we can ensure the public space is clean and well maintained as we head into these busy times.

These clean ups use a range of ways to freshen up a space – from cleaning and graffiti removal to installing artwork on empty shopfronts.

Check out an article about the Courtenay Place community clean up in June 2023.

Courtenay Place light boxes

The Courtenay Place light boxes showcase local artists, with a rotation series of exhibitions.

Know Your City Limit

This campaign is a bright orange reminder that the central city is an alcohol ban area, and that the fine for breaching that is $250. The purpose of the campaign is to increase awareness of the ban area and to educate people who are new to the city.

This work is supported by New Zealand Police who have increased their enforcement of the alcohol ban in the central city.

Improved lighting

We’ve upgraded the lightbulbs in the streetlights on Courtenay Place to LED. These are much brighter so the area is well lit and more inviting. The change was completed in November 2021.

Flood lighting has been installed down Opera House Lane, making it much brighter at night-time.