Empire Hotel

396 Princes Street, DUNEDIN

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From gold miners trading hope over an empty glass to another band of hopefuls belting out their new tune to a sea of faces, the Empire Hotel has played a special role in the culture of Dunedin since the mid nineteenth century. The Empire Hotel has provided accommodation, victuals and a gathering place for those passing through the town, until it became a tavern in the 1970s. In the 1980s the Empire became famous as a venue which gave local bands a place to strum and jangle their creative energies, a collective voice which became internationally recognised as the ‘Dunedin Sound.’ The Queen’s Arms was the first hotel on this Princes Street site and was built on the west side of Princes Street in 1858. It sits on the main thoroughfare, located south of The Exchange in what was the commercial heart of Dunedin during the nineteenth century as it was next to the coastline and located close to the port. Businesses and hotels sprung up to serve tired and thirsty travellers and the Queen’s Arms was among the earliest. Replaced by a brick building designed by architect Thomas Bedford Cameron in 1879 and renamed the Empire Hotel around 1898, the Hotel has been a social centre and gathering place since that time. In the 1980s the Empire Hotel took on a new role when owner John Simpson provided a venue for local bands playing original music. The upstairs bar became the centre of the developing Dunedin Sound, with exponents such as The Verlaines, The Clean, The Chills, Sneaky Feelings, The Bats and the like performing their lollipop melodies or droning dirges that would become internationally recognised as the Dunedin Sound and which remains a special part of Dunedin and New Zealand identity. While the venue became less important after the Simpson’s sold the Empire at the close of the 1980s, the Empire is still revered as the home of the Dunedin Sound. The Empire Hotel is one of many Victorian and Edwardian buildings remaining on Princes Street south of the Octagon, creating a cohesive townscape. Like its neighbours, the Empire Hotel fronts directly to the footpath on Princes Street. It is a three-storey brick building (with a basement) with the street front plastered. It has a parapet at roof level which conceals the structure of the corrugated iron roof behind. A steel fire escape is fixed to the front façade, providing egress from the upper storeys, with the stairs reaching diagonally between the first and second floors. The façade is painted to pick out the modelling and detailing of the building. The ground floor has two round-headed entrance doors, one to the ground floor bar, and the other to the upper floors. Between the doors are two round-headed sash windows set back in the façade. Vermiculated keystones are the main form of detail. There are short cast iron window grills on the window ledges. The first floor has four round-headed sash windows with a vermiculated keystone at the head of the arch. Plain pilasters articulate the space between the window openings. The top floor has smaller window openings (the windows are shorter) with the same keystone detailing as on the other two floors. In addition, the pilasters have Corinthian capitals with foliage and scroll decoration. The Empire Hotel has a special association with the development of the Dunedin Sound. Graeme Downes writes that the Empire was an incredibly important part in both Dunedin’s history and New Zealand history more widely: ‘It is to this city what the Cavern Club is to Liverpool in terms of what it helped spawn, even if compared to the Beatles neither the bands who played in it, or the venue itself, is a household name…it cannot be underestimated the role the Empire played in nurturing a local music scene that is acknowledged within alternative music circles around the world.’

Empire Hotel. August 2010 | Owen Graham | Heritage New Zealand
Empire Hotel. Building detail. September 2011 | Owen Graham | Heritage New Zealand
Empire Hotel. Building detail. September 2011 | Owen Graham | Heritage New Zealand

Location

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List Entry Information

Overview

Detailed List Entry

Status

Listed

List Entry Status

Historic Place Category 1

Access

Private/No Public Access

List Number

9548

Date Entered

4th April 2012

Date of Effect

4th April 2012

City/District Council

Dunedin City

Region

Otago Region

Extent of List Entry

Extent includes the land described as Pt Sec 11 Blk VI Town of Dunedin (RT OT3A/1094) Otago Land District and the building known as the Empire Hotel thereon, and its fittings and fixtures. (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the registration report for further information).

Legal description

Pt Sec 11 Blk VI Town of Dunedin (RT OT3A/1094), Otago Land District

Location Description

Located on the north side of Princes Street, south of the Octagon in central Dunedin.

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