HOTELS OF EARLY WELLINGTON

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 206, 28 May 1938, Page 8

HOTELS OF EARLY WELLINGTON

Licensed Houses Of 88

Years Ago

BENCH’S WARNING IN 1850

V recent reference to a proposal to rebuild the City Hotel, at the corner of Oriental Parade and Majoribanks Street, lias interested many old rest dents who can remember a very different Wellington from that which exists to-day. An issue of the "Wellington Independent,” of December, 1875, mentions that the City Hotel, which was built by Mr. John Wimmer, would be opened after the approaching Christmas, and the same newspaper also mentions the building by Mr. Coker of "the new hotel opposite the ’Theatre Royal. This of course, was the old Occidental Hotel, the Site Of Which, on the corner of Lambion Quay and Johnston street, is now occupied by Kirkcaldie and Stains. When that hotel was demolished the licence was transferred to the New Occidental Hotel, further northward along the eastern side of Lambton Quay. Other items of interest concerning the hotels of early Wellington may be gleaned from the tiles of newspapers ol the time. The “Independent of April 20, 1850, gives a fairly full report of licensing day at the Magistrates Court, when Mr. 11. St. Hill, R.M., presided, supported by the following justices or the peace:—Messrs. Fox, Kelham. Strang, Fitzgerald, Swainson and Majoi Baker.' On that day licences were renewed to the following publicans. Mi. Allen, New Zealander Hotel, Manner-? Street: Mr. Alzdorf, 'Wellington Hotel, Lambton Quay (this man was the only person killed in the violent earthquakes of 1855) 1 Mr. Ames, South Sea Hotel, Lambton Quay; Mr. Bannister, Crown and Anchor Hotel, Lambton Quay; Mr. Brown, Thistle Inn, Mulgrave Street Mr. Buck, Travellers’ Rest, Taita; Mr. Burcham, Agliouby Arms, Lower Hutt; Mr. Cameron, Queen’s Head, Molesworth Street; Mr. Firth, Aurora Tav ern Willis Street; Mr. Flyger, Commercial Hotel, Willis Street; Mr. Frensham Victoria Arms, Abel Smith Street; Mr. Mclntosh, Waterloo Hotel, Kaiwarra; Mr. Munn, Royal Hotel, Lambton Quay ; Mr. Pimble, Ship Hotel, Manners Street; Mr. Roe, Barrett’s Hotel, Lambton Quay; Mr. Simson, Highlander Hotel, Upper Hutt; Mr. Whitewood, the Rose Inn, Hutt. “Vigilant Inspection.’ The bench gave it out on that occasion “that tr vigilant system of inspection by the police will be directed dining the ensuing year, and that the bench hereby resolves not to renew any licence on future occasions to par ties who shall have been found to con duct their houses in a disorderly man ner, by allowing drunkenness, harbouring bad characters, impeding the police in the detection of crime, or other irregularities.” In addition to the renewal of the above licences, the following new licences were granted at the same session:—Mr. Calder, Kaiwarra Hotel, Kaiwarra; Mr. Vincent, Te Aro Hotel, Dixon Street; Mr. Cooper, Rising Sun Hotel, Greytown; Mr. Gouper, Caledonian Hotel; Mr. Davis, Nelson Hotel, Lambton Quay; and Mr. Wallace, Wallace’s Hotel. The Nelson Hotel mentioned in tins list was not the hotel which subsequently became the recently-demolished Central Hotel, as has been suggested. It was situated further aloug the Quay. The Nelson Ale House, however, founded by a Nelson brewery firm, did stand on the site of the Central Hotel. The Ship Hotel stood on land nowoccupied by the Maple Furnishing Company in Manners Street. It boasted.a little theatre at its rear. It is likely that the Caledonian Hotel mentioned in the list of new licences was not the hotel of that name in Adelaide Road for there were no licensed houses so far south in Wellington in 1850. An advertisement of 1851, however, gives UK clue to the identity of this hotel, which was actually, according to the advertisement, the Caledonia Hotel, and was kept by Mr. William Meech as “an inn and family hotel.” It stood where Tinakori Road joins the Hutt Road, and was a popular port of call for all travellers on the road. The advertisement stated that “conveyances to and from the Hutt pass daily and boats communicating with the shipping can land within a few yards of the door at all times.” The water is now nearly half a mile from this spot.