AUCKLAND HOTELS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 155, 3 July 1935, Page 6

AUCKLAND HOTELS.

' (By MARUTUAHU.)

OLD-TIME DAYS AND WAYS. LOSSES AND SURVIVALS.

The recently-reported finding of a copper "token," or substitute for currency, bearing the date 1874, at a depth of two feet, in an ' Auckland garden, was an interesting reminder of an Auckland" that was very different to the city we know to-day. This token, bearing the name'; of the United Services Hotel, at the corner, of Queen and Wellesley Streets, is . onq of a series' that were issued in the old ' colonising days, quite a number of hotels and business' houses . baving their distinctive "tokeJis." The United Services Hotel was Me license now, .".known as the Metropolitan. ' Originally the Metropolitan was the name of one of Auckland's licensed houses, which then stood on George Graham's freehold at the corner of Fort -and Queen Streets. In later years this corner, iiection was leased by the Colonial Mutual Life Company, which built the concrete building for its offices which still ; stands there, but has been acquired by the ' owners of the Imperial Hotel license, Fort Street, and structurally merged in. that building. The original wooden hotel which stood ; on tljat corner was moved by Mr. Graham to ' anotlfer property he owned in Harding© Street, off Victoria Street, and there re-erected, for a long, while being known as Metropolitan House. The corner lamp holding the old sign 1 of the hotc 1 was for a long while .after in the back yarli at Hardinge Street, still bearing the old name. The wording "Metropolitan House," despite many years of painting and repainting .of the building, used still 'to show ■ through, shadow fashion, on the wall. .■..: Losses by Fire. In Victoria Street another ,pld hotel, a twp- ; storeyed wooden building at the corner of iHardinge Street and Victoria Street, was ' formerly a well-known house called The Red Lion and owned by Mr. George Aker's. This building for many years past has been a boardinghouse, but at the footpath level can still be seen the openings through which liquor used to be let down into -the cellars by the brewers' carts. Traces of many earlier hostelries, those built soon after the founding of the city, were lost.in the disastrous fires which occurred in the late 'fifties and early 'sixties. In 1858 a fire broke out at the Osprey Inn in High Street and destroyed with it the whole block bounded by Chancery. High, Shortland and O'Connell Streets. In 18(53 the Thistle and the Greyhound were destroyed in a fire which extended from Durham Street East to Victoria and High Streets. In the (ire of August, 1800, the whole of the west side of Lower Queen Street was destroyed. There is, Jiowever, an old building" standing in Wakefield Street" which is practically structurally intact as it stood in the 'sixties. It is still known as Fitzroy House, and was formerly the Fitzroy Hotel, so named in honour of Governor Fitzroy —ho who succeeded Hobson., Probably one, of the most famous hotels of olden Auckland was the Governor Brown, in Hobson Street, kept by the late David Sheehan (grandfather of the writer). This hotel was a famous caravanserai long before and after the Waikato War, for there stayed as guests many of the officers of the regiments, such as MacDonell, Von Tempsky, Carey, Mercer and Hamilton, while Sir George Grey himself used to quarter there. Many also of the prominent Maori chiefs visiting ■ Auckland, friends of the Sheehan family, stayed there, such as Tawhaio, Rewi'Maniapoto, Waka Nene, Patuone and the famous Te Taniwha, of the Thames. This hotel was demolished and replaced by the present building and renamed the Grosvenor. ... The Black Bull. , Another! hotel whose name was familiar' 'to pioneer Auckland was the Black Bull. It was in' this hotel,' in Albert Street, that the man who murdered Lieutenant Snow and his wife and children was arrested. He and a female associate, had murdered the Snow family at the North Shore; thence the couple I proceeded overland to Riverhead, leaving a i bloodstained tomahawk on the roadside near Patuone's settlement by Waivvharariki (Lake Taka'puna). This' led to the suspicion that the .murderer had been a Maori. However, after eseapiag to Australia, the murderer, unfortunately" for ,him, returned again to Auckland, and, meeting his female associate, they adjourned to the Black Bull bar to drink. A quarrel -arose between them, and in the mutual recriminations which followed, the police were sent for and both were arrested. The man was convicted and hanged for his crime, being taken across in a boat to the North Shore and executed near Lieutenant Snow's late home, in the locality then known 'as Magazine Point, near where the Ventnor I now stands. The Black Bull, reconstructed ' into a niodern building, now bears the name ! of the Criterion. In former days many of Auckland's hotel owners were Irishmen, as many still are. This accounts for so many licenses bearing Irisb names: the Clanriearde, kept by the Lee family, on the site afterwards built over iby the "Sun" newspaper office; and the Harp of Erin, which as a locality became historical during military days, for .there the troops on route marches were halted and dismissed for a brief rest. The Maoris still refer to the locality as Te Hapa. Another Irish-named hotel was, and still is, the Shamrock, in Wellesley Street West, at the corner of Albert Street. Pre-Railway Days. Before the days of railways, when country travelling w-as by stage coach, hired wagonette or saddle horsed a famous hostelry was the Greyhound. This stood where now is .Court's corner. The elaborate stables connected with this, hostelry, known as the Greyhound Stables, are remembered by old Aucklanders; the building still stands, having had a varied career, a brick structure at the corner of High Street and Victoria Street East at the rear of the Central Hotel, which succeeded to the license of the old Greyhound. The Cargen Hotel has incorporated in its structure one of the oldest buildings in Auckland, the two-storeyed place known as the Old Club, a gentleman's club preceding the present Auckland and Northern Clubs. The Old Club, like the Governor Brown, was a famous quartering place for regimental and naval officers during the war, being convenient to the barracks and also to Wynward Pier, just below it on the beach. This locality was known to the Maoris as Waiariki, that being the; name of a famous spring of water which emerged on the site of Grey, and Menzies' aerated water factory. The license now represented by Cargen is the site of the old T?iMway .Terminus Hotel, so called because Auckland's first railway station was just b...>w. The Strand Hotel is also a very ancient license, the building going back to the 'sixties at least; and was named, as is indicated, from the fact •that it stood on the beach or strand (now the foot'of Stanley Street, and far from the sea). Another hotel whose name perpetuated facts of Axickland history is. the Britomart, built at the foot of old Point Britomart. The point was named from H.M.S. Britomart, a warship of the early days, and was called Fort Britomart.

Not the least famous of old Auckland's inns was the Stone Jug. , The' historic old Milestone building still stands, but' has long since lost its license owing to the "reduction" •issue which affected it. This inn made its reputation during the Waikato wars, for here forgathered the officers and men quartered at the Point Chevalier rifle ranges. That locality is still, however, known as the Stone Jug.