A brighter Brighton in time for Christmas

Saturday, 20 December 2025

Workers put finishing touches on the huts at the New Brighton Village Green, ahead of Sunday’s official opening.

They’re small and stripey, and they’re brightening Brighton.

A row of colourful striped huts along a boardwalk, with a stage and large turf lawn, form the New Brighton Village Green the Christchurch beach suburb has been waiting for.

Launched as a community project to help revitalise New Brighton Mall, the village green will be officially opened on Sunday after just four months’ construction.

Ready for this weekend’s opening are, from left, Greater New Brighton Charitable Trust chair Lin Klenner, village manager Mark Hudson, lead designer Paulina Porebska, and site manager Sam Healy from Constructor.

The project has been funded by $2.5 million from the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Trust.

The village green’s performance stage and grounds can be booked, and there are already festivals lined up for next year.

Except for when booked, the facilities are open to the public to enjoy. People can relax or come to eat their lunch on the lawn or a picnic table, and make use the community kitchen’s microwave.

Lead designer Paulina Porebska inside one of the newly built huts.

There are 14 huts in different sizes, including a community hut. They can be hired on an hourly, daily, weekly or longer-term basis.

Rates will be flexible, at about $56 a day for a community group depending on hut size.

Users could be an art gallery or studio displaying works or hosting classes, a small business or community group, or a family holding a special birthday party. Already signed up is local community radio station Seaside Sounds.

The huts can be hired long or short term.

The grounds also feature edible plants such as baby lime trees and cranberry bushes.

The 1000m2 site is owned and leased out to the trust by local property investors and developers the Harris family. The Harrises also own the rest of the block and the land opposite, where they have planned a new retail and hospitality complex.

The Greater New Brighton Charitable Trust, a group of volunteers, is in charge of the village green project.

Picnic tables and umbrellas were going in on Friday.

Chair Lin Klenner said it would not have been done on time and on budget without the 'kind support, extreme discounts, and a lot of work.'

She said the tradies, led by company Constructa, have been working all hours, including a electrician she saw “still going hard” one night at 8.30pm. Some finishing touches are yet to be done, and some huts are still to get their council sign-off.

“It’s been a massive project for a community group to do. There’s been a huge amount of work and meetings to make sure we were enabling what the community wanted.”

The trust has just hired a manager, Mark Hudson, to run the village.

The New Brighton Village Green will be opened by the mayor on Sunday.

Hudson said they are open to inquiries from people wanting to hire huts.

He said there could be a rotation of community groups in for the day or the week, like local artists, pottery and carvery classes. A business might pay around $200 a week, or book monthly.

Hudson said it was really about what the community needed.

Klenner said it has been an “intensely community focused” project, with the funding rules requiring public consultation throughout.

At Sunday’s 2pm opening mayor Phil Mauger will cut the ribbon, while food trucks, cake, and music will add to the celebratory atmosphere.