Hotel DeBrett

If Queen Street is the Main Street of New Zealand, the area around Shortland, High and O'Connell Streets is it's beating heart. There isn't much that hasn't happened here since DeBretts and her neighbouring buildings first sketchy timber frames went up in the 1840s.

Historic hotel DeBrett is a chameleon which has changed it's pace and it's face in a gentle rhythm in time with the changing fortunes of of urban New Zealand. It's earliest iteration was as the Commercial Hotel, built in 1840-41, and converted to a more grand three story brick version in the 1860s after a fire. There were office buildings either side and hotels in the general area. This was the first home of commerce in Auckland, and remains so.

At the tail end of the temperance days, Alfred Kidd owned the Commercial Hotel when he was elected to office in 1908, becoming the first liquor-licence holding Mayor in New Zealand. Then High Street needed widening, in 1925, stealing a full three metres form the front of the hotel. This is when a complex rebuild resulted in the intensely Stripped Classical frontage and fittings which remain today.

The title 'Commercial' fell away in 1959, and the name DeBretts was easily adopted, staying with the hotel through the rest of the Century including a stint as a backpackers hostel popular with overseas visitors. The latest refurbishment was hailed as a triumph, winning the heritage category of the Auckland architecture awards in 2009.

The new owners have cranked the Stripped Classical Style to a new level, by adding a dash of Art Deco and the colorways of Retro to create their unique 'Design Hotel' interior. Nowhere in New Zealand is there a hotel to compare the new DeBretts to.

BOOK YOUR STAY AT HISTORIC HOTEL DEBRETT

Image Credits: Booking.com* ***