Auckland pub Lumsden Freehouse's hilarious fix up of damaged bathroom wall

The Lumsden Freehouse has made a splash after their temporary bathroom fix went viral. Photo / The Lumsden Freehouse. Photo / Twitter

An Auckland craft brewhouse has gone viral after an employee's hilarious fix up of the damaged men's bathroom was photographed and shared by one cheeky customer.

One-and-a-half years ago The Lumsden Freehouse operations manager Lucie Campbell discovered a hole in the wall of the men's bathroom.

But instead of fixing it, she instead decided to make a joke of the situation by framing the hole and writing the caption: "Fragile Masculinity - Artist unknown, 2018".

Campbell told the Herald it was initially meant to be a temporary fix but customers loved it so much it's still there today.

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Those of you not familiar with the urinals in the bar may not be aware we were visited by an up and coming mystery artist. A veritable Banksy if you will.

A post shared by The Lumsden Freehouse (@the_lumsden_freehouse) on Mar 20, 2019 at 5:57pm PDT

"About 18 months ago I came in on the Monday morning and there was a hole smashed near the urinal and I had a bit of an eye roll," she said.

"I thought rather than paying all the money to get it fixed up I'd have a little joke with it. We're a pretty light-hearted pub, we don't take ourselves too seriously. So a $10 frame and a little note from me, it's still there.

"It was meant to be a temporary fix until I actually got around to fixing it properly but it's certainly made people laugh over the past 18 months so I've left it there."

While locals have known about the genius fix job, the pub's joke went global last week thanks to a Canadian man who tweeted about the photo frame.

His tweet received more than 291,000 likes and was retweeted more than 63,000 times.

The pizza joint I went to framed a hole in the wall in the men’s washroom and called it “Fragile Masculinity” pic.twitter.com/ZTxO2BsWMH

— Josh McConnell (@joshmcconnell) January 10, 2020

Punters took to social media to praise the pub's humour with many saying they wish they thought of the idea.

"Smart from them to not include a glass cover. Allows the artist to come back and offer touchups," one wrote.

Another said: "This is way better than the banana art piece."

The Lumsden Freehouse has made a splash after their temporary bathroom fix went viral. Photo / The Lumsden Freehouse

While a very small minority have taken offence to the joke, Campbell says most people find it funny and it's a different way to interact with patrons.

"Most people have a laugh about it. There's no message behind the joke, it's just to have a laugh with our customers.

"Running bars you kind of get used to that destruction in the male toilets. But it could have been a number of things that led to it happening."