The Hamilton Arena

Our friend’s brother was in this flat last year, so we got pretty lucky because it usually doesn’t get advertised. One of our friends, his mum used to come to parties here when she was at uni, so it’s been a flat for thirty-odd years. There are gates all the way along the fence with the place next door, so we think this might have been the servants’ quarters.
It’s generally about two or three degrees cooler inside than outside, which has worked out really well since it’s only been summer so far, but it’ll be pretty interesting come the winter since it doesn’t have any heating. Everyone’s going to huddle in the lounge.
The pool’s empty, so it’s not so much a pool as a party pit. We had a party in there, which was good; there were a lot of smashed bottles in there by the end. The 50-year old neighbours broke down the fence to come and party with us. They had straight Jim Beam and were chopping it back. We gave them a swimming race, which was pretty much just running back and forward.
We’ve got an indoor basketball court as well. We’ve screwed a hoop up on the wall, essentially, so it’s not really a “court”, but we try our best.
There’s a tennis court right through the fence as well, and about two houses down. There’s maybe two other flats up the road, but it’s mainly just nice places. There’s a bridge out back that goes into the back section of a poncy-as house. We snuck through there one night on the way to The Foundry, and as we ran through these massive flood lights went on. We were just like “shit, shit, shit”, and the only way out is to jump over a fence with a rose bush, so you get all tangled up and rip your shirt. But if you’re keen to GI Joe it, you end up at the Eng block.
There was a bit of a battle to get a TV in the flat. Three people in the flat didn’t want to have a TV, one sat on the fence, and one really wanted to get one. After the earthquake no one in the neighbourhood had any idea what was going on with the quake, so we brought a TV in from the garage because we had an inverter which we could use to power it off the car battery – we had about 20 people in here watching it with their glasses of wine. Then it was too heavy to carry back out, so it’s kind of just stayed in the house. Now that it’s here, some of the people who didn’t want a TV are quite happy to watch it. But it’s a sensitive topic.