Shanghai > New York >
Whakatāne’s The Strand. But for a
growing number of businesses willing to think outside the box and outside the main centres, regional New Zealand makes a lot of sense. George Street Linen is one of them.
The Wheelers Service Station staff photo, late 1920s. Whakatāne Museum and Historical society
The building, as a real estate agent would say, needed a little work...
Whakatāne
Square and Shanghai’s The Bund to
WORDS ANDY TAYLOR
I
T’S A MIGHTY LONG WAY from Times
It’s an unlikely combination. Take a kinda down-on-its-luck 1930s petrol station slash auto repair shop and fill it with luxury linens. On the outside it’s all imposing art deco lines in workmanlike grey and white livery, and on the inside it’s bed covers, pillows, robes, and sheets in soft colours with a hint of fragrance in the air. But if it’s an unlikely combination, then George Street Linen in, um, George Street, Whakatāne, is certainly one that seems to be working.
George Street set up shop at the top of Whakatāne’s The Strand three years ago when its mastermind, Greg Davidson, returned from overseas. Greg had worked in the fashion industry in Auckland running his brand Chow Mein for several years and had been a pioneer of inner city living before the hipsters moved in. Making the CBD your home wasn’t easy in those days, and eventually a mounting pile of parking tickets and the frustrations of trying to run a business while a financial downturn was happening drove him to pack his bags.
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