Grey Lynn and Westmere residents threatened to boycott Barfoot & Thompson<\/a> and take their future property sales elsewhere over the looming closure.<\/p>\nAt a packed community meeting, supporters vowed to \u201cprotest with their pockets\u201d, arguing the bar\u2019s departure would cost jobs, damage a cherished local institution and erase a piece of Auckland hospitality history.<\/p>\n
In a statement today, Barfoot said he had great respect for what the Gypsy Tea Room team created.<\/p>\n
The company also cared deeply about the Grey Lynn community. It had worked hard to find a way for the bar to remain part of the building\u2019s future, which included offering another street-front tenancy in the completed development. <\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, they chose not to take up those options and made the decision to close at this location.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus now is on getting on with the redevelopment, protecting the character of the building and making a positive contribution to the village for the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n
After more than 20 years behind the bar, Simeti said he wouldn\u2019t swap it for anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have had an impact on people\u2019s lives to the extent that we\u2019ve had, that\u2019s probably as satisfying as you can get.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bar had gone out with a bang in more ways than one. Simeti said someone threw a rock through the vacant building\u2019s window at the weekend.<\/p>\n
He assumed it happened on Saturday, before the keys were handed over on Monday.<\/p>\n
![\"A]()
A rock was thrown through a Gypsy Tea Room window after its closure.<\/p>\n
Simeti believed the damage was a protest against Barfoot & Thompson, rather than the Gypsy Tea Room.<\/p>\n
Police said they had no record of the incident.<\/p>\n
In June, Barfoot told the Herald that after a year of engaging with the owners, going \u201cabove and beyond\u201d with communication a typical tenant could expect, the real estate agency was looking to move forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur position has been communicated clearly and fully, particularly with the affected tenant over an extended period of 12 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis includes attempts to find a workable solution that met their needs and several different potential design plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barfoot said he would have \u201cwelcomed\u201d the opportunity for Gypsy Tea Room to remain part of the building.<\/p>\n
Asked for a final message to Barfoot & Thompson, Simeti was brief.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have to live with their decisions.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rachel Maher is the education correspondent for the New Zealand Herald. She also covers other topics such as Auckland issues, crime and local government. She started at the Herald as a breaking news journalist in 2022, before joining the Auckland team this year. <\/p>\n
Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crowds packed the bar and spilled down the street for its final send-off on Sunday, August 16, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2327,74,806,16717,14645,5201,18509,9060,6741,5904,26348,52088,90867,72919,1345,20829,23300,232487,130,111,139,69,180421,60084,16784,8466,13660,213,6182,27319,131,2044,1530],"class_list":["post-579811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2327","tag-after","tag-as","tag-becoming","tag-beloved","tag-closed","tag-closes","tag-decades","tag-doors","tag-final","tag-generations","tag-grey","tag-gypsy","tag-heartbreak","tag-home","tag-locals","tag-lynn","tag-lynns","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pints","tag-pouring","tag-room","tag-second","tag-sharing","tag-sports","tag-stories","tag-tea","tag-than","tag-time","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579811","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=579811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}