‘It looked so cute’: Owners fell for ‘Carmen’s’ Cuba St shophouse

Cuba Street remains one of the more gritty jewels in Wellington, a vibrant, entertainment quarter that has attracted many of the more colourful characters in the city.

And perhaps none more so than Carmen Rupe (1936-2011), a former tenant of this heritage-listed shophouse at 288 Cuba St, which has just come on the market.

The 1890s building has a Historic Place Category 2 listing with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, which has a lot of background on the former drag performer and these premises. Carmen, born Trevor David Rupe, first gained fame in Wellington for her highly successful coffee lounge in Vivian St, which operated a brothel upstairs catering to various sexual preferences.

The success of that venture led Carmen to open multiple business outlets in the city, including a shop, Carmen’s Curios, in this building. She is on record describing it as “a fascinating old house…and such an attractive building which I considered completely ideal for my type of curio outlet”.

Heritage New Zealand says the shop, which was open from 1972-74 was inspired “by her long love of curiosities”. It sold antiques and second-hand goods and, while not open long, it had a lasting impact on the precinct.

Carmen’s contribution here to the colourful and diverse social history of Cuba St remains a significant part of the building’s historical importance. She was a strong advocate for the rights of the LBGTQI+ community and her silhouette features on crossing lights in the street, a reminder that “visibility matters”.

Today, the house is fully rented with commercial premises on the ground floor, where there is a Thai massage parlour, and accommodation on the upper level. The commercial premises are rented for $860 (inc GST) a week, and the residence for $524 a week (GST exempt).

The current owners have undertaken considerable research into the building. Graeme, a retired professional, says they bought it around 2010-2011 from a man who had owned it since 2006 - that owner had transformed it from “a wreck”, which was a long and arduous process.

This is the second house on the site - the original house was removed around 1890 so that this one could be built in 1891 for William Bristow and his wife Nellie.

The Imandt family owned the building for 101 years, after Christian Imandt bought it in 1905 to run a drycleaning business. More recently the Kiwi Art House Gallery was a tenant.

Significant features of the building include the timber-framed bay display window flanked by marble steps to porches either side, and the decorative fretwork on both levels. A report by Opus commissioned at the time of the renovations also mentions the impressive chimney “with three superb original chimney-pots”.

Part of a double-brick wall also remains, which would have have been part of the original stables at the rear of the building.

The ground floor of the four-bedroom building extends out the back, and there is a rooftop deck above the bedrooms on the ground floor, which are currently massage rooms. The owners have added a pergola to the deck for extra weather protection.

The property is being marketed by Everard Aspell and Celeste McCabe of Ray White Wellington, and will be auctioned on November 14, 2025.