{"id":411886,"date":"2026-05-04T21:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T21:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/411886\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T21:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T21:49:11","slug":"neil-finn-buys-controversial-auckland-pub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/411886\/","title":{"rendered":"Neil Finn buys controversial Auckland pub"},"content":{"rendered":"

Split Enz and Crowded House member Neil Finn has bought a controversial Auckland pub, with plans to turn it into a wellness retreat.<\/p>\n

By Felix Walton of RNZ<\/a> <\/p>\n

Edinburgh Castle in Eden Terrace has a history of violent incidents, including the manslaughter of rising MMA fighter Fau Vake<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n

Stuff reported in 2023 that the bar had surrendered its liquor license, but continued to operate poker machines and sell hotel rooms.<\/p>\n

Neil Finn’s assistant confirmed to RNZ the musician had purchased Edinburgh Castle, which neighbours his existing Roundhead Studios.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Edinburgh Castle in Eden Terrace (Source: Google Maps)<\/p>\n

Finn was on tour with Split Enz<\/a> and was unavailable to comment himself.<\/p>\n

His assistant said Finn planned to transform the venue into a wellness centre, but couldn’t comment further.<\/p>\n

Restaurateur Chand Sahrawat, who runs The French Cafe directly across from Edinburgh Castle with her husband Sid, said they were excited by the news.<\/p>\n

“The site has had its challenges over the years, so a concept centred on wellbeing, connection, and a more considered use of the space is a welcome change,” she told RNZ in a written statement.<\/p>\n

“We see this as a great addition, something that will contribute positively to the energy, safety and overall appeal of the neighbourhood.”<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including Middle East violence flares up again, and evacuations from a cruise ship struck by a deadly virus. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Split Enz and Crowded House member Neil Finn has bought a controversial Auckland pub, with plans to turn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,42,157,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-411886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-auckland","tag-headlines","tag-music","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}