Bendigo Hargreaves Mall Lanterns turned from notorious toilets to pop-up shops

It is known as Bendigo’s ‘toilet of last resort’ but now, in a bid to curb anti-social behaviour, there are big plans to transform the public facility into something completely different.

Bendigo’s most notorious public loo will be converted into boutique pop-up shops in a bid to clear the city heart of its “anti-social” reputation.

The City of Greater Bendigo senior strategic planner Philip DeAraugo said the toilets in the two Hargreaves Mall Lanterns were known to the community as a “toilet of last resort”, with a survey naming it as Bendigo’s most disliked bathrooms.

Mr DeAraugo said the bathrooms were a bane to the business community, with a round table with city centre shops three years ago identifying the stalls as an issue.

Mr DeAraugo said the lanterns were hated because they were exposed, less clean and had fewer facilities.

“There was no hiding when you were lining up to go to the toilet,” he said.

But Mr DeAraugo said the most concerning element was the rate of “anti-social behaviour” happening within the stalls, particularly in relation to drug use.

“Local public toilets do get used for activity that is not associated with toilets,” he said.

Mr DeAraugo said when the toilets were decommissioned in March 2020 the anti-social behaviour disappeared.

The strategic planner said removing the notorious bathrooms’ was a key part to cleaning up the city’s reputation, going from loos to entrepreneurs.

The City of Greater Bendigo has invited businesses and individuals to submit expressions of interest to become a temporary tenant in the converted toilets.

Mr DeAraguo said the “micro tenancies” would allow businesses and individuals to set up shop for free, with tenancies to run from just a week to as long as a year in the 4 sqm spaces.

Supplied Editorial The Lanterns at Hargreaves Mall, Bendigo. Picture: Zizi Averill

He said the council was “flexible” and was open to the suggestion of one lantern featuring a permanent store, and the other featuring an array of pop ups changing every few weeks.

“We don’t have any hard and fast ideas. We want people to be creative ad we’ll make it happen,” Mr DeAraguo said.

“People will soon forget they were public toilets.”

Mr DeAraguo said the council was looking for ideas that complimented the area, rather than competed with pre-existing businesses.

“We want to add to the trade of all businesses,” he said.

Be Bendigo chief executive officer Dennis Bice said the small tenancies were the perfect place for experimentation, start ups and new ventures.

Mr Bice said ironically the lanterns were originally designed as mini-stores, not toilets, so the 2020 remodelling was a return to the “original plan”.

While Mr Bice did not agree the old toilets had a “dodgy” reputation, he said there was always some concern about the facilities.

Mr Bice said negative chatter about the mall happened in every town across Australia, and said Bendigo’s reactivation plan, including the toilet removal, was a real opportunity to reform this narrative.

“When you have activity in the mall of any kind it’s a great thing,” he said.

“It’s creating a completely different environment,” he said.

Mr DeAraugo said this year was pivotal to the reactivation of the Hargreaves Mall, with a new shade structure to be constructed and development to begin on the six-storey, 110-room Mantra hotel.

For more details about the short term tenancies at the Lanterns visit The City of Greater Bendigo website.