Is busy K-Rd arcade's loo problem due to heritage status?

• April 26, 2023

St Kevin’s Arcade bathrooms have to be accessed with a swipe card and customers need to climb two flights of stairs. Photo: Isaiah Abadingo

Disabled toilets at K-Rd's popular St Kevin's Arcade are often inaccessible by 11.30pm, despite its busy late night bars and restaurants.

Meanwhile other customers have complained as they - and staff - have to climb two flights of stairs to access toilets shared among the 12 businesses catering for nearly 400 people at once.

While building owners Icon Group could potentially be breaching Building Code and Building Regulations by having restricted access to disabled toilets, the building's Historic Heritage protects owners from having to comply with current Code and Regulations.

“We could build a toilet in our space if we wanted to, but it’s part of our deal [with Icon Group] that they provide access to theirs and clean it,” says Jonathan Thevenard, a restaurant owner in the building.

“It’s handy for us to not have to deal with maintaining toilets, but I know the toilets get crazy busy at night, and people have to wait a long time which can f*** up their experience,” he added.

Another business owner Chris Mansfield said: “The wheelchair access is on the other side of the building, but it’s usually gated-off after 11:30pm by other businesses for security purposes.”

The Resource Management Act prohibits any work on existing buildings if the work sufficiently affects a building’s characteristics, and doesn’t protect Historic Heritage.

Bar manager of Wine Cellar in St. Kevin’s, Christopher Varnham, criticises this: “So was there no disability access for toilets in the 1920s?”

The arcade, built in 1924, was sold to Icon Group in 2015 before it underwent a $2.5million renovation for 18 months to address infrastructural issues and repairs.

Any building work or changes to St Kevin’s Arcade will need council consent, which will also have to abide by their Unitary Plan.

Icon Group has not responded to requests by TWN to comment.