The New Albion Hotel.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 33, 27 August 1887, Page 3

The New Albion Hotel.

The new Albion Club Hotel is now almost complete and we had yesterday the pleasure of being shown round the builaing by the contractor, Mr Sheet. We cannot say that we admire the exterior appearance of the building very much, but coats must be cut according to cloth these times and bmament sacrificed to utility. The ground floor of the hotel is very well arranged, commercial, writing and Other rooms being provided. There is | capital billiard room and a fine large, Well-lighted dining room. Besides the outer or public bar there is a quiet little sanctum, where no doubt the usual Hebe will be enshrined and serve out smiles with the sherry, and be pert with the port and where, no doubt, also the usual frivolous young men will worship. A fine broad staircase leads Upstairs The arrangements upstairs are far superior to those on the grond floor, the whole of the twenty.four bedrooms opening on to a wide corridor lit by fan lights. Private sitting rooms, bath rooms, linen closets, etc., bra all provided, and the accommodation for boarders and the travelling public will be excellent. There is one feature however, in connection with the builda which should be altered without y. The urinals and other conveniences are far too close to the back of the house, being only a few yards jwav from the back doors of the kitchen and scullery. The position of these buildings should be changed at once. The contractor, Mr Skeet, is to be congratulated upon the excellent manner in which he nae done the work. Considering that it is only about three and a half months since the contract was signed, and that there was unavoidable delay in the arrival of the timber, Mr Skeet has fulfilled his contract with wonderful despatch and has set a good example to local contractors who are sometimes very dilatory. The painting and paperhanging was executed as a sub-contract by Mr F. Hall, and he too deserves great credit for the admirable manner in which his share of the work has been executed. The papers throughout the whole were chosen by Mr Finneran, the architect for the building, and do great credit to his artistic taste. The paper on the upstairs corridor is an extremely handsome one and some of those in the sitting rooms are of exceedingly artistic designs. The new hotel will form an admirable addition to the Gisborne hostelries and will doubtless, under good management, prove a paying speculation for the enterprising and popular owner, Mr W. F. Crawford.