New location fails to save Melbourne's first laneway bar Meyers Place from closing permanently

Iconic city bar Meyers Place has closed, another victim to COVID-19. When it opened in its original eponymous laneway location in 1994, the five-by-twenty-metre bar launched a new way of drinking and socialising in Melbourne, spurred by recently liberalised licensing laws and post-recession can-do energy and optimism.

It was an early project of the six architects who were partners in Six Degrees design studio and the bar's roller door, shagpile-carpeted walls and recycled timber interior was the mainspring of a recycled aesthetic which became a Melbourne signature. Cramped and casual, regulars would comment that it felt more like a party than a venue, especially at 2am after a few Melbourne Bitter longnecks.

In 2017, the bar was evicted from its original location below the Italian Waiters Club. It popped back up - along with much of the fit-out - in nearby Crossley Street in 2019. But COVID killed cashflow and owners Heather Lakin (the last of the original Six Degrees crew) and Drew Pettifer (artist barman turned proprietor) put the business into administration in October. Two days ago, liquidators said they hadn't been able to find a purchaser and the formalities of winding up will now commence.

"It's really heartbreaking and quite depressing," says Drew Pettifer, who is a senior art lecturer at RMIT University. "I started working at the bar while doing my undergraduate degree in 2004. I've been involved for 17 years. I felt like I was a caretaker or a steward. My interest was in making sure the bar maintained the community and offering people came to expect from it but the end of the road appears to have come prematurely." He notes that the paperwork isn't yet finalised. "I suppose there's a slight possibility of someone coming forward to keep it going but it's a very short window," he says.

Though last drinks have been called, this is one place whose legacy will live forever.