Oxley's Hotel Facade
Location: Corner 1-9 Wellington Street and London Quay, Picton
Oxley's Hotel, originally known as the 'Bank Hotel', was built around 1870. Picton builder William Pugh, the hotel's first manager, is thought to have constructed the building. William Pugh ran the hotel for a number of years until he sold it on May 6th 1881 to Mr. Allen Gulliver Divens and his wife, Margaret.
The Divens family owned the newly named 'Pier Hotel' until 1887. It was in this year on 21 March that their daughter, Miss Mary Jane Divens married Mr. Francis Allwood Oxley. Mr. Oxley was an employee of the Post and Telegraph Office in Picton. It was at this time that Mr. Allen Divens sold the hotel to his son-in-law.
From 1899 to 1902, under the ownership of Francis Oxley, the original portions of the hotel were demolished, leaving only a timber portion constructed in 1889 on the south side. Added to this timber portion was a two-storey masonry building with a curved façade in Italianate Palazzo style, and an ornate cast-iron lacework verandah. The hotel, renamed 'Oxley's', included 29 rooms, of which 16 were bedrooms.
The building was largely demolished in 2004, following a contested resource consent application. However, the ornate masonry street façade was retained and temporarily supported while a new structure, known as Oxley's Rock Development, was built behind it. The façade was strengthened and incorporated into the structure of the new building, and was refurbished and repainted using a heritage colour scheme.
Oxley's Hotel Façade was registered with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust 28 June 1990. A review of the registration was completed 23 October 2008 to confirm changes to the extent and category of registration. It is now registered as a Category II – Historic Place.
NZHPT link
Sources
- NZHPT, 'Oxley's Hotel Façade', NZHPT Registration Report, 19 September 2008 (Record no. 5108).
- Michael J. Taylor, 'The Bank Hotel: History of Oxley’s Hotel', (unpublished), 1986, copy on file in Marlborough District Council’s Heritage Records.