390 Queen Street, The Glen, Nelson City
Queens Head Tavern
The Auckland Pub described as ‘a horror too awful to destroy’ is set to return to it’s roots when the clash of the hotel facade on an office tower at 404 Queen Street completes another rebirth, as a hotel.
It was New Zealand Herald columnist Brian Rudman who described the Queens Head as a Frankenstein of 1980s “facade-ism”, and many critics agreed. In this area, examples abound of the fashionable trend for retaining Victorian street frontages with mismatching and disproportionate new constructions behind.
In the case of 390 Queen Street, the original 1870s hotel faced its first challenge when it was gutted by fire in 1887, but was soon rebuilt and hummed through the next century. By the 1980s, it was already Heritage Listed, but Auckland Council had not put it on a preservation list. Negotiations with the developer of the new office block therefore led to less preservation and more tower. The pairing of an elaborate brick and plaster ornamental character face, and a bright blue glass block, thereafter making a very odd couple on New Zealand’s main street. A late coat of pale paint mildly ameliorated the disparity between the elderly bride and her flashy toyboy.
After a 2011 plan to demolish the lot in favour of a retail complex failed, new property owners Russell group decided in 2016 to move the tower in the direction of the burgeoning tourism industry, returning it to it’s hospitality roots as a 250 room hotel. Even as the refurbishment took place, the Russell Group were confident of finding an International Hotel Group to manage the building. And it is now managed by Sheraton.
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