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Hamilton’s young bar-goers have spoken out after a popular local venue banned those aged under 20 from their premises.

Last month, House on Hood announced it would return to being a “20+ bar” on Saturday nights, after they dealt with a year of “five-figure damages” to the property, including broken toilets.

Hamiltonian Ruby Blezzard turned 18 in September and said she was disappointed by the move as she had eagerly waited to be able to go to House on Hood.

“Now it’s been taken away from me again.”

She said the ban was “unfair” and she never saw anything being damaged whenever she attended the bar; however, she understood how that could happen.

Fellow Hamiltonian Paige van der Poel, 19, said she was in two minds about the ban, as House on Hood was the only bar she attended with friends.

“I can get where they’re coming from but ... where do you draw the line because if you’re going to kick out under-20s, there’s still 20-year-olds that act disrespectfully.

“But I know what 18 and 19-year-olds can be like when they’re going out ... and [some] probably get a little crazier than you should do.”

Van der Poel believed she didn’t fit the misbehaving crowd, and she was “embarrassed to be in the age group the ban targets”.

However, 20-year-old Aysha Finlay said she was “quite glad” of the ban, saying there was “a lot of violence” caused by 18-year-olds.

When under-20s were first allowed in, Finlay said it was all right until “toilets became gross”, the bar became overcrowded, and people were inconsiderate.

“A couple of times, people just started running up and punching my friends, a lot of them stopped going because things were just so chaotic,” she said.

In her view, the ban was fair and would improve the “overall town experience”.

Bar owner John Lawrenson said younger patrons would shove glass bottles in toilet bowls, then cover it with toilet paper. Photo / Lawrenson Group

Bar owner John Lawrenson, of Lawrenson Group, said House on Hood used to operate as a 20+ venue, but they lowered the age restriction last year.

He said he knew he “took a risk” in making that decision and now, after a year, realised it was “the wrong call”.

Lawrenson said since lowering the age restriction, fights had increased, several toilets had been broken, glasses were “smashed”, and furniture was broken.

He said the bar also had to deal with stag heads being ripped off the wall, glass bottles being shoved in toilet bowls and covered with toilet paper, meaning hundreds of dollars were almost literally “flushed down the toilet”.

Lawrenson said most 18-year-olds were going to bars for the first time and were still “learning good drinking habits and control”.

“It’s like watching Bambi getting to walk on ice for the first time.”

He alleged those aged under 20 had “minds of animals”, were “destructive” and had no “control” - something over-20-year-olds did not want to be around as they had “gone through that life stage already”.

“If you’re a 30-year-old socialising with a 28-year-old it doesn’t feel like much of a difference, but to a 20-year-old, an 18-year-old seems very young.

“A lot of them haven’t learned respect or consequences ... don’t have control in the amounts they drink, or understanding how their behaviour negatively impacts others.”

Lawrenson said he knew he was generalising and realised that there were even some over 20-year-olds that still didn’t have “responsible drinking habits”, but young people had “a lot of growing up to do between 18 and 20″.

He apologised to people in their 20s who didn’t enjoy their time at House on Hood in the past year, while under-20s were allowed.

House on Hood informed patrons about the changes to the age restriction via a social media post which quickly gained a lot of comments from people relieved by the ban.

“The post just hit a nerve ... probably spoke to a lot that maybe feel like they still want to socialise on a Saturday night in an environment where they aren’t getting shoved and vomited on by 18-year-olds.

“Hopefully they’ll enjoy themselves more this year.”

He also had a message for those aged under 20.

“If they want to behave like that, they can go to The Outback [another venue owned by the Lawrenson Group] or other places, or they can trash their own apartments.”

Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.