Naming flats

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1930s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, flatting, music, orientation

The Mouse House, photographed in 1991. Image courtesy of Sarah Gallagher.

From the “Bach” of the 1930s to “Gran’s Place” of the 2010s, Otago students have developed quite a tradition of naming their flats. For the past ten years or so, Sarah Gallagher has been recording and researching this phenomenon, and has a book about it planned. Sarah, who is a librarian at the Health Sciences Library in her other life, runs a blog, a facebook page and a twitter account about the Dunedin Flat Names Project, and you can read much more about it there.

Sarah says that the naming of flats, though not peculiar to Dunedin, doesn’t occur on such a large scale anywhere else in New Zealand. Perhaps it is a self-perpetuating phenomenon! Some names have persisted for decades, while others come and go and their origins have been lost.

The Bach, at 208 Leith Street, was established by a group of bachelor divinity students in the 1930s. Flatting was rare in that period, and students from out of town who couldn’t afford to live in a residential college generally lived in some sort of boarding situation, often a cheap room provided by a local landlady. The Bach provided a home to some university students alongside men studying at the Presbyterian Theological Hall, Knox College. It was a well organised community, but it was pretty crowded, with a dozen or so people squashed in three to a bedroom. It had a name plate, and also a crest and Greek motto, which translates to “because of poverty”.

As flatting became more common in the 1950s and 1960s, new flat names appeared on the scene. As remains the case today, some of these reflected the standard of the accommodation or the lifestyle of the residents. The Shambles was a well-known 1950s and 1960s party flat on the corner of St David and Great King Streets, where Scribes Bookshop is today. Among the many named flats of the 1970s were the Hobbit’s Hovel, the Slagg Heep (158 Dundas Street) and the Spanish Slum (16-18 London Street). In the 1990s Sarah herself lived in the Mouse House (888 Cumberland Street), a rundown flat so named because of all its vermin. The Shit House Chateau (47 London Street) was voted the worst flat in Dunedin in the students’ association’s 2012 awards. In an innovative project, the Chateau (as the Otago Daily Times politely names it), was rented by a group of students belonging to environmental group Generation Zero in 2013. Their goal was to tidy up the house and turn it into a healthy home as an inspiration to both landlords and students.

The DSIR in 2000. Image courtesy of Sarah Gallagher.

The Pink Flat, after its door was repainted in 2004. Image courtesy of Sarah Gallagher.

Of course, not all Dunedin student flats are rundown dives and there are many modern or renovated places on the rental market. But it is the older “character” buildings that tend to attract names. Many include subtle, or not so subtle, sexual references, such as the Cock and Swallow, while some refer to drinking exploits, such as the DSIR (Department of Student Inebriation Research). Others are more cultural or esoteric in origin. Pink Flat The Door at 3 Clyde Street, named in 1988 by a group of students including broadcaster Wallace Chapman, was a “freedom flat” inspired by Skinner’s philosophy of a free society. The door design refers to Pink Floyd’s classic album The Wall. Some names reflect the history of the building. From the late 1990s comes Bruce’s Beenjamin’ Butchery, located at 15 Ethel Benjamin Place and clearly visible from State Highway 1. The house used to be a butcher’s shop, and Bruce was the landlord. Others reflect the identity of the flatmates. The house at 40 Dundas Street, once upon a time known as the Greasy Beaver Lodge, has recently become the Embassy, complete with Samoan flag.

The Greasy Beaver Lodge in 2000. Image courtesy of Sarah Gallagher.

Ironically, one of today’s most famous Otago flats has no name. In 2006 a group of friends from Unicol moved into a flat at 660 Castle Street and became known as “the boys from 660”. When the band they formed made its first recording and needed a name, they selected Six60. The band has since gone on to great success, and recently returned to Otago to perform at 2014 orientation, attracting what is claimed as the biggest crowd in O-week history.

Sarah’s project is clearly shedding new light on the fascinating cultural history of Otago student life. Have you got any stories of named flats to share, either with her or here?

Intellectual ravers and charismatic sceners

Tags

1970s, clubs, orientation, recreation, teaching

The cover of the 1975 OUSA Orientation Handbook featured Patty from the popular Peanuts cartoon.

“Dentistry gives you an opportunity to use your hands as well as your head” …. “The great myth that Home Science is a breeze just isn’t anything but a great myth” …. Surveying “is basically easy, but there is a heavy workload which requires consistent effort, and which becomes monotonous” …. Theology “has a lot of hard work and its rewards are almost entirely personal” …. Medicine “involves making an intense personal commitment” …. In Commerce “the workload is heavy. Don’t expect an exactly joyous atmosphere either”. So goes some of the advice from the article “Just what are we in for?” from the OUSA’s 1975 orientation handbook.

The Arts Faculty came in for the most analysis, with brief comments, admitted to be “unashamedly shallow”, on individual departments. These mentioned whether significant internal assessment – then a very new feature – was used, the state of staff-student relationships and the quality of teaching. Anthropology I, for instance, included “some very good lectures, and some very bad”. Economics I lectures were “often good for a laugh”, while teaching in the Russian Department was “abysmal”. One sign of the times was the comment on the attitudes of staff, with “conservative” a pejorative term. The Philosophy Department was “conservative and its attitudes sometimes approach arrogance”, while in the Classics Department “staff-student relations are cordial”, but “it remains a conservative department”. Large classes in Psychology meant staff couldn’t get to know everyone, but “they are not conservative, and as befits their chosen field of study are concerned with your welfare”.

To 21st century eyes, the entire publication is an intriguing mixture, ironically enough, of conservatism and new ideas. Though nearly 40% of Otago students were women that year there were just two women on the thirteen-strong OUSA executive, which was dominated by law students. Several of the men had impressive 1970s-style long hair and beards. Two of the exec later became well known public figures: information officer Jon Gadsby is a comedian and writer; and cultural affairs officer Jim Mora a popular broadcaster. Listed alongside the Catholic Society and Student Christian Movement were the Baha’i Club and Ananda Marga. The latter, meaning Path of Bliss, taught yoga and meditation: in those days of recent new exploration of space and deep oceans, “meditation is the inner spaceship to explore the vast uncharted areas of our own consciousness.”

Political radicalism was catered for in several of the clubs: HART (Halt All Racist Tours), COV (Committee on Vietnam for Peace in Vietnam) and SPAN (South Pacific Action Network). The latter took action “on matters of South Pacific concern from an anti-imperialist perspective”. The article “The life and times of Joe Cool, or how to make friends and influence all the other deadheads at Otago University” gave advice on “choosing your scene”. It noted that “on Campus power lies with a) The Newspaper-Literary magazine complex; b) the Students Politics group; c) the Charismatic Sceners; d) the Intellectual Ravers; e) the arty-farty drama types; f) the freaks. (Sport is no longer a power source but a valuable physical resource.)”

Most of the recommended eating places have long gone. The Siroco in Lower Dowling Street was “one of the City’s better coffee shops”, Big Daddy’s in the Octagon was “Great for a hot pie at 6am”, the Kandlelight Café at St Clair was “a great place for evening coffee” and Joe Tui’s in Albany Street was “famed in campus lore and legend – but no reported deaths!” Among the “interesting shops” were Isador in Rattray Street “for weird women’s clothes”, Poppourri in Lower Stuart Street with “good pottery and prices” and Maranatha in Bath Street for “the best quality leather goods in town.” There’s no mention of any supplier for one of the phenomena I remember vividly from the 1970s – macramé – but perhaps it could be picked up at the Witches Coven in Lower Stuart Street, a “usual commercial so called ‘with it’ shop.”

The Witches Coven could supply all the needs of the ‘with it’ 1970s student. Advertisement from the OUSA Orientation Handbook, 1975.

Were you a ‘raver’ or a ‘scener’? Do you have any stories to share of student life in the 1970s?

The miners’ mystery venue

Tags

1960s, 2000s, 2010s, Colombo Plan, hotels, international students, mineral technology, mining, orientation

Freshers’ welcome 1964, Department of Mineral Technology album, MS-3843/005, S13-561b, Hocken Collections, University of Otago.

Were you at Otago in the 1960s? Do you recognise this venue, possibly on campus? After our success in identifying the mystery 1950s dentists, I’m hoping this more recent image will prompt somebody’s memory! The photograph was taken at the freshers’ welcome for mining students in 1964 – do you know any of these happy people? This was a time when the Colombo Plan was in full swing, bringing students from Southeast Asia to Otago and other Commonwealth universities – some of the men pictured may well have been part of that scheme. This was also the last year of the independent Faculty of Technology (formerly the Otago School of Mines). In 1965 metallurgy courses came to an end and the Department of Surveying and Department of Mineral Technology were absorbed into the Faculty of Science. While surveying continues to thrive at Otago, in 1987 the government transferred mining courses to the University of Auckland (in the face of loud southern protest).

Student social venues have been in the news recently, with ‘the Cook’ – the historic Captain Cook Tavern – closing last week. The hotel, which opened in the 1860s, is slightly older than the university, but for many decades students have been an important part of its clientele. In recent years, though, student drinking patterns have changed, with more people drinking at home or gravitating to the flourishing bars around the Octagon and environs. With profits dropping at the Cook, the building owners have been unable to find anyone willing to take on the expiring lease.

The university had a more active role in the closure of two other historic hotels in north Dunedin. In 2009 the university bought the Bowling Green Hotel, which had been home to a string of controversial promotions during the eleven-year lease of its final publican. A year later, the Gardens Tavern building was sold to the university. After multi-million dollar refits, the former ‘Bowler’ and ‘Gardies’ pubs re-opened for entirely different purposes. 71 Frederick Street – the prosaic name of the former Bowling Green Hotel building – now houses the university’s Bioethics Centre, Maori Health Workforce Development Unit and Pacific Island Research and Student Support Unit. Early this year the Marsh Study Centre opened in the former ‘Gardies’, providing a comfortable study space and reducing crowding in the libraries around campus.

Do you remember socialising at the Cook, the Bowler and the Gardies? Which other venues have been important to Otago students and staff?

Update – 31 March 2014: I posted this photograph again in a piece about the Colombo Plan, which you can read here. Take the link to find the name of some of the men in the photograph. I’m still looking for more information though!