In 1894 when Robert Jamieson opened the doors of his bakery and refreshment rooms on Great North Road in the small Southland town of Winton, his name emblazoned across the façade of the building, he provided a place to make bread and serve meals and hospitality to those travelling through Winton and locals alike.

Irish born Jamieson arrived in Bluff in 1875 and after a sojourn at Nightcaps moved to Winton working with baker and butcher C.D. Moore. In 1892 he set up on his own as a baker and confectioner, serving customers west of the Oreti River (to avoid competition with his former employer). The Southland Times reported that Jamieson’s , two-storey brick building was an ornament to the town and provided most comfortable refreshment rooms. Surviving two fires the business continued into the twentieth century when Jamieson’s sons joined him. Jamieson died in 1929 but his sons carried on until the end of the 1940s when they sold the business. Since that time the building has been home to a number of businesses, including a beauty salon and takeaway.

Jamieson’s Restaurant (Former) is a colonial commercial building with painted brick veneer. The striking façade has two triangular pediments at the roofline, concealing the gabled roof behind. The roof form has parallel gables, with a transecting gable between them. The façade has decorative plaster scrolls in the centre of each pediment and spherical ‘urns’ mounted on the parapets. The name of the business ‘R. Jamieson’s Restaurant’ is spelled out in relief. The building has a double-height, iron-roofed verandah with decorated cast-iron posts extending through both levels. There is a cast iron lace running across the first floor verandah. The commercial premises were originally on the ground floor, while the top floor was the home of the owners and operators of the bakery/restaurant business.

Sitting in a townscape recognised for its surviving Victorian and Edwardian architecture, Jamieson’s Restaurant is a significant element of the streetscape. It represents the period of consolidation of Winton’s town centre and is a survivor of the multiple fires which destroyed many buildings on Winton’s main street. The mobile population who visited town and stopped for bread or to meet over a cup of tea, or the traveller grabbing something on the go provide an illustration of the developing culture of eating away from home that is a predecessor of the modern restaurant trade.

In 2011 Jamieson’s Restaurant (Former) remains home to businesses on Winton’s main street.