War-time hotel played vital role

The photograph of Walker’s Hotel in Te Aroha that accompanied Lyn William’s article last week put me in mind of the important role hotels played in colonial New Zealand.

Indeed, until the later 20th century hotels or pubs, as they were more often known in my youth, were the centrepiece of most towns and cities and of people’s social lives.

The Waipa Hotel in Ngaruawahia stands at the intersection of Great South Rd and Jesmond St.

In conjunction with the Delta Hotel (1900) to the north and Grant’s Chambers (c.1929) to the south, the Waipa forms a triumvirate of streetscape defining, twostorey buildings in the centre of a historic Waikato town.

A hotel has operated on the site of the Waipa since February 1887. That first hotel was rebuilt in 1893 and then enlarged in 1898. Fire destroyed the building in March 1917; consequently, tenders were called in July of the same year for its replacement in brick.

While it is unclear when the new hotel was complete, the sale of the licensee’s temporary bar in November 1917 suggests that the new Waipa Hotel was operating by then.

The Waipa is notable architecturally as a war-time hotel designed by Auckland architect A. G. Daw. Arthur George Daw (1858-1930) emigrated to New Zealand in 1883 and was registered as an architect in 1914; he also designed Maori Hall (1907) and the chapel at the Costley Training Institute (1913), both in Auckland. In June 1911 Daw called tenders for reinstating the Shortland Hotel in Pollen St, Thames, which had been partly destroyed by fire three months earlier.

Little wonder that the Waipa was rebuilt in brick given the ever-present threat of fire in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Jesmond St fac¸ ade of the Waipa Hotel is suggestive of the influence of the Spanish Mission Revival style, whereas the Great South Rd elevation follows the more conservative Victorian/Edwardian villa style favoured for hotel design.

The building was owned by the estate of Sir John Logan Campbell of Auckland when Thomas Alfred Sunnex (1897-1972) applied for the publican’s licence in April 1945.

In June of the preceding year the hotel had been the luncheon venue for Governor-General Sir Cyril Newall and his party upon the occasion of a vice-regal visit; such was its place within the civic amenities of the town.

Unlike the modified Delta Hotel and Grant’s Chambers, the Waipa Hotel is not scheduled on the operative Waikato District Plan, nor was it included in the heritage schedule in the proposed district plan notified in 2018. Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Toanga (HNZPT) does not list the hotel, meaning that it is neither protected, by the district plan, nor recognised for its heritage values, by HNZPT.

Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Toanga (HNZPT) does not list the hotel, meaning that it is neither protected, by the district plan, nor recognised for its heritage values, by HNZPT.