other long-standing hospitality businesses in the capital shut down<\/a>.<\/p>\nBolton said Red Square would not be closing for revenue reasons.<\/p>\n
“I’d love to see Wellington do better, but for us it’s a very different reason why we’re closing,” Bolton said.<\/p>\n
She said the Wellington hospitality scene had changed a lot in the past two decades, as had the bar.<\/p>\n
What started as a lounge bar with a pool table, serving cocktails and food catering to people around 30, was now a nightclub for 18 to 21-year-olds only open on Friday and Saturday nights.<\/p>\n
![\"Long](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JOSRVN_redsquare_welly_closes_png.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nBolton said Red Square would not be closing for revenue reasons.
\nPhoto: Facebook\n<\/p>\n
But the nightclub lifestyle did not fit with Bolton’s own anymore.<\/p>\n
“One of the main reasons I’m stepping away is my kids have got Sunday sport and me getting home at four in the morning isn’t really viable anymore.”<\/p>\n
Bolton said one of her favourite parts of each weekend was discovering what was in lost property – from someone leaving behind one shoe, to one crutch.<\/p>\n
She felt like she had grown up in the place, as had her own kids.<\/p>\n
“It’s been in my family my whole life, so it will be sad standing or stepping away from it. But yeah, it is time.”<\/p>\n
Jeremy Smith, director of Trinity Group which owns bars including Lulu and The Arborist, said the late night market had been particulary tough with challenges like “more homeless people, lack of investment, streets not always as clean as they should be”.<\/p>\n
“I think there’s not many venues that are flying, most are hanging in there.”<\/p>\n
![\"Trinity](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4P2DNE7_copyright_image_57804.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nTrinity Group managing director Jeremy Smith
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Teresa Cowie\n<\/p>\n
Smith said in the past, one venue would close and another would open, with the number of venues staying roughly the same.<\/p>\n
“What we’ve now seen in Courtney Place is that a place closes, and there’s no people putting their hand up to say, ‘Look, I’ve got a new idea, I’ve got a new concept, I’m willing to take the risk’.”<\/p>\n
He said people were more cautious, leaving Wellington with more empty venues.<\/p>\n
He hoped there would not be more closures on the horizon, and said owners were working together to find solutions.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sarah Bolton is the owner of Red Square. Photo: Supplied The owner of Wellington bar Red Square remembers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-422806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422806","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=422806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Owner](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JOSDOH_Selected_photo_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n