On 17 November 1977 a two-storey shopping mall opened.
In a landscaped brightly coloured setting was a central fountain on the ground floor surrounded by banana trees. Overlooking this a promenade where customers sat at the Boulevard Café observing the hustle and bustle below of the many visitors browsing around the retailers creatively condensed into all the spaces.
The mall bathed naturally through translucent sections in the roof enhanced by lamps, floor colours, earthware tiles and house plants.
Observed in each direction on both levels were the attractions of a compact 34 shop commercial hub blessed with most services a person might need to get through and day and night and additional visual delights as well.
Metres away Giovanni’s ice cream parlour decorated in the red, white, and green colours of the Italian flag adding to 24 flavours of gelato including cassata and pistachio and the favourite Blue Lagoon (unless you got it on your white blouse, then no option but dye that the same hue).
Giovanni’s also made sundaes, sodas and 24 different milk shake options, and if that wasn’t teeth challenging enough, Stanley and Hazel Borkowski opened the Dainty Diner specialising in candy floss and toffee apples from an old English recipe going back hundreds of years coating golden delicious and granny smith apples in bright red, crunchy toffee. Mrs Borkowski once offered $500 for the recipe by a tourist.
In many ways this new shopping centre was a first for Christchurch and its architect Roger Buck described as an evangelist for sustainability and environmental architecture and way ahead of his time (died in 2017).
The developers were Rolleston Investments Ltd.
Pier Mall was in New Brighton down the Shaw Av end.
By building upwards there was the ability to provide twice as many shops, and in anticipation of resistance by retailers to lease the first-floor shops, Buck made the view from the ground as attractive as possible to entice customers up the six accessible stairs into the world of….
Mary Gray was started in Christchurch in 1949 by two ladies May and Bertha and amongst its goodies were aniseed wheels and mint humbugs.
Racquet Sports was the first speciality of its kind in Christchurch selling tennis, squash, badminton and table tennis and clothing lines for other sports as well as a string and repair service and even coaching.
Elizabeth Hawes ran Batik Bazaar, featured handmade batik fabrics from Malaysia and Indonesia and there was the Cash Loan Company, The Shoebox, Zodiac Hairstylist, The Hot Nut Shop, Ace t-shirts and Pier Toyshop.
(Have to take a breath here for reflection).
The Pier Mall retailers formed a merchant’s association to promote its trading, and soon after opening the first was a whopper contest with prizes of a Fi-Glass Fireball boat, Yamaha FS50motorcycle and Para Rubber swimming pool.
All the contestants had to do was answer seven questions to go into draw.
There was always a line of people looking through the glass into the actual bake house of the Bakers Oven producing hot batches of bread every hour including wholemeal, Kippel wheat, fruit loaf and French bread. It was a dinner-winner and the aroma made most swoon in anticipation.
The Country Kitchen specialised in Scandinavian and continental kitchenware, and there might have been a toasted sandwich shop in featuring a Tastie Tennesee (possibly braised roast beef and Swiss cheese on rye).
Sarah-Jane Children’s Boutique, John Harrison Television and Bernina Sewing Machines and a health food shop plus Dominion Rentals where colour teles could be hired rather than purchased.
Where have all the water beds gone ? One of the large tenants of Pier Mall was Waterbed World in the days when one in four beds with mattresses sold filled with water.
There were other outlets not mentioned suffice to say there were plenty of small to medium businesses in a covered space and who could forget the coin operated bird in the cage wolf whistling and laying an egg.
In the beginning the Pier arcade and adjoining Seaview Corner Mall (opening late 79) went with a hiss and a roar and retailers reported Christmas sales off the scale with one Saturday clocking 23,000 in and out where the average was about 13,000.
The Council played a big part in pushing a retail bonanza in New Brighton and a number of shopping precincts opened or upgraded in a very short space of time.
Hard to believe while this was happening darkening clouds were already gathering reflected in a few retailers without official permission beginning to open Sundays to keep the takings up.
It was terribly confusing for customers because a smattering was legal, a few shop owners not supposed to (leading to threats of prosecutions by inspectors) and others staying shut all in the same commercial space.
New Brighton had been riding the wave of Saturday shopping since the 1960s and that monopoly was about to end and did in 1980. Around the city Hornby, Riccarton, Linwood and others were closing in like vultures making improvements and expanding to meet the weekend trading hours about to be shared to all, and claim back wandering local customers.
Those visitors zooming out on Saturday to all our arcades including The Barn, Carnaby Street, the main New Brighton mall, Surfside, Seaview Corner began falling away while new retailers were still moving in.
Trade during the week shrunk and the number of shoppers in Pier Mall halved by 1984 leading to belated attempts to get Sunday opening for all New Brighton.
The rest is history but what can we learn from this, “great idea but bad timing”. The second being far too many retailers and many offering services replicated closer to where people lived.
Yet the rudiments were there in 1977 and lessons learnt applicable to the current New Brighton retail scene.
The desire today is to compress the commercial zone and address the randomly spread shops around a run-down mall. Hence the desire by Council to extend Oram Av and promote the development of the top end of the mall in association with the proposed Village Green, and promote the western section of by bringing residential closer to the retail boundary.
Specialise in food outlets or an enterprise not necessarily offered elsewhere. The theme for New Brighton is well-being and recreation and therein lies the potential focus.
Lastly work together as a business cohort as currently displayed by Carnaby Collective.
The final word goes to the Pier Mall, this was a masterpiece of design from the incredible wine glass fountain, banana trees, natural light through ceiling, bright colours, tile floors, upstairs promenade retailers viewable from the ground, rounded windows, alcoves for shops and so much more. This was a lively place and one relax and enjoy. Today it would be a mall museum attraction had it been preserved.
The building shell still is currently tenanted by a very good retailer in Best Furniture, when next checking the great product range, you also pass through the ghosts of the old Seaview Corner and Pier Malls once operating in tandem.
Pier Mall…Rest In Peace