Guest dines ‘at home’

Press, 2 May 1984, Page 6

Guest dines ‘at home’

Childhood memories were stirred last evening when Mrs Sylvia Nolan, of Gisborne, was the guest of honour at the opening of Christchurch’s newest restaurant, Tiffany’s. The refurbished Tudorstyle house in Cambridge Terrace which houses the restaurant was built for Mrs Nolan’s father, Dr F. G. Westenra, in 1907, and was their family home until he died in 1918. Turning the house into a restaurant was "the nicest thing that could have happenedj” said Mrs Nolan.

“It is so nice that it is being used and filled with happy people again.” Mrs Nolan turns 86 this month and described last evening as her birthday present. She thought the house would have been demolished years ago, but learnt of its new life when an old friend sent her an article printed in “The Press” last year. “Intensely interested” in the project, Mrs Nolan visited the house's new owner, Mr G. A. Scrimshaw, when she was in Christchurch last year.

“Mr Scrimshaw took me into his office and I discovered that it was my mother and father’s bedroom,” she said. Mrs Nolan believed her father would be delighted that the house was being used and although he probably never imagined that it would be a restaurant, at least part of it was still being used for its original function. A medical centre will be established on the ground floor and Dr Westenra, who was a registrar at Christchurch Hospital, also run a surgery at his home.