Oldest licence

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32783, 7 December 1971, Page 15

Oldest licence

The White Hart, the licence of which is being transferred to the Avonhead Tavern, was the first hotel in Christchurch—in fact it began as a tent beer shop the day after Michael Brennan Hart, an enterprising Englishman, arrived in Christchurch on the Cressy on Boxing Day, 1850. When Hart bought the section on which the White Hart stood in High Street in 1851 for £4B, Mends told him he was dirowing his money away as it was “so far away from the centre of town.” Hart paid £525 for the complete block to Bennington’s corner and began the

first timbered premises of the White Hart in the spring of 1851. The workmen used to swim and went duck shooting in a lagoon where the Roman Catholic Cathedral now stands in Barbadoes Street. Hart later became the first Mayor of Christchurch. Until rivals appeared, the White Hart was and Hart was the life and soul of the young Anglican settlement. The Pilgrims did not only drink; they ate, and Hart delighted in loading tables to groaning point The White Hart Hotel licence was bought by Burkes in 1964 after the hotel dosed.