Mechanics Bay and the 'Shipwrights Arms'
From the earliest period of Auckland's colonial history, Mechanics Bay was a major commercial and industrial suburb. Known as Waipapa by Maori, the locality was renamed Mechanics Bay at the foundation of Auckland in 1840, when it was the designated area for occupation by workmen and artisans. Raupo whare were erected to provide temporary accommodation for the first influx of Pakeha settlers, while in September 1841, suburban sections of land were on the market. Substantial industrial enterprises subsequently developed, including the sawpits of Messrs Carson and Clark, James Robertson's ropeworks - which produced rope of all kinds for export to Australia - and the business of Henry Nicol and William Sharpe, shipwrights, which remained on the foreshore until 1872. The main thoroughfare between Auckland and Parnell also ran along the foreshore, crossing the tidal inlet at the eastern end of the bay via a small timber bridge.
Industrial activity co-existed with Waipapa's use as the main landing reserve for Maori importing and exporting goods to the colonial capital by waka, particularly after Tamaki had been sold. In 1848, 20,000 tons of potatoes, apples, peaches and wheat passed through the reserve. Two years later, Ngati Whatua built the Waipapa hostel to house Maori visitors to the town. The reserve upon which the hostel stood was the only piece of Ngati Whatua land in Auckland.
Five acres of land opposite the hostel was granted to Frederick Whitaker as a Crown Grant in October 1844. In 1849, a prime site made up of Lots 5 and 6 close to the foreshore on the corner of the main Parnell Road and Stanley Street was sold to the merchant David Nathan. This land was bought by George Leech the following year, who subsequently sought to serve the recreational needs of the local shipwrights, sailors, timber workers and rope winders, as well as to provide accommodation for the many visitors coming to the bay. In April 1856, he applied for a licence for a public house of 23 rooms to be known as 'The Shipwright's Arms.' This was a large amount of rooms for a licensed hotel in Auckland, with less than twelve being a more usual number. His application may reflect the popularity of businesses in Mechanics Bay as a source of casual work. Preferential treatment for licences was often given to public houses with quality accommodation as a counterweight to the fear that such establishments might be used as drinking dens.
Leech's application was initially unsuccessful as a result of opposition through a 'petition from thirty natives... and several European inhabitants.' There was considerable concern about alcohol consumption from religious groups and middle-class citizenry in the early colonial period, as such groups generally considered that drink undermined virtuous aspects of the colonial enterprise such as the settler work ethic as well as individual moral character. Organisations such as the Auckland Total Abstinence Society, St Patrick's Temperance Society and the Council of the Auckland League of Temperance were consequently established in Auckland during the 1840s and 1850s. Fear of alcohol's effect on the 'civilising' of Maori was particularly strong, and legislation against serving Maori with spirits enforced.
Leech believed that the proximity of the Maori Hostelry across Stanley Street was a factor in the decision to refuse him his license, and he argued his case through letters to a local newspaper. Apart from noting that several existing public houses were located close to Maori settlements or gathering places, such as the Royal George in Newmarket or the New Leith in Onehunga he made a plea for respectability:
My house had been designed not for a mere tavern...no, my house was designed to be a spacious and comfortable hotel, in which families whom contrary winds or other circumstances of necessity sometimes detain in town...Presuming, Mr Editor that you yourself in some of your evening rambles may have passed my house, situate in Mechanic's Bay...I will appeal to you...to say whether the premises of any of those fortunate favourites of the Progress Bench, whose applications were entertained so favourably, could be compared to mine for extent, capability of accommodation, cleanliness or salubrity of situation.'
Leech's account strongly suggests that the hotel had already been constructed, possibly in 1855 or early 1856. Early photographs show the hotel as a modest two storeyed timber building having four windows on each of the first floor Parnell Rise and Stanley Street elevations, a pair of large windows on the ground floor, and at least two entrances leading respectively onto Parnell Rise and Stanley Street, with a separate access to the public bar near the street corner. Leech's campaign was evidently successful as a licence was granted for the premises as the 'Victory of Sebastopol' between April 1856 and April 1857.10 This was a topical name, with Sebastapol having been the last major battle between British and Russian forces during the Crimean War (1854-1856). The premises retained this title until 1859, when they were re-named the Swan Hotel.
The Swan Hotel
Inns were often located on major traffic routes, catering for travellers by providing food, drink and accommodation, as well as offering stabling for horses. For social interaction there was generally a bar or tap room for working class liquor consumption, and a parlour for more 'gentlemanly' drinking. The Swan Hotel was well located to attract passing trade on the Auckland-Parnell Road, being situated between two steep hills, one into Auckland and the other towards Parnell. Lying immediately across the main road from the bay, it was also positioned at the intersection of the road down from Grafton Gully and a route eastwards along the foreshore. It was the only public house in Mechanics Bay, and the only one between Auckland and Parnell. In 1863, a significant amount of subdivision took place to the east, leading to a greater density of housing - and prospective clients - in the immediate vicinity. A more substantial change to the immediate landscape took place in 1865-1866, with the construction of a bridge and viaduct very close to the east of the hotel, as part of the proposed Auckland and Drury railway line. The corner sill of the hotel was used as a benchmark to establish the levels for this structure. As construction on this and other nearby works lasted for more than a year, it is likely that the Swan entertained some of the project's substantial workforce.
George Leech died in November 1868, his funeral procession leaving from the Swan Inn. He was described at his death as very old (aged 61) and respected, well known in Auckland, having been in colony for a number of years. His property was left to his wife, Margaret.
Although the Auckland and Drury Railway project had not been finished in the 1860s, the bridge and viaduct were eventually brought into use with the advent of Vogel's public works schemes in the 1870s, which enabled the Auckland to Onehunga line to be completed by December 1873. This involved considerable reclamation works in Mechanics Bay, which effectively removed the Swan Hotel from its earlier foreshore aspect. The area, already an important industrial area, saw others setting up businesses. The hotel was expanded to service a growing number of local residents, visitors and industrial workers.
In the early 1870s an adjoining cottage was added on to the Stanley Street side, to contain dining and billiard rooms. In December 1880, the New Zealand Herald reported that Edward Bartley had directed more significant alterations, including eleven additional bedrooms, bathrooms, a store-room, a wash-house and a new kitchen. The building was extended 9.7m (32 feet) in length by adding a second storey over the billiard and dining rooms, giving the hotel 'an imposing frontage to Stanley St, as well as to the Manukau Road' (i.e. Parnell Rise). The major facades were also remodelled, while a detached stable and coach house were probably built in the southeastern corner of property. These alterations reflect a more general modernisation of public houses in Auckland during the 1870s and 1880s, caused by increasing competition for trade between innkeepers and new legislation that allowed the general public to vote on local licensing issues.
A fire was reported on 1 January 1889, which started in the buildings adjoining the Swan Hotel and spread to the upper rooms of the hotel threatening to destroy the building. However, firemen were able to put it out with comparatively little damage. In the following year Sarah Leahy - one of George Leech's daughters - gave up her rights to the hotel to Louis Ehrenfried for £2,000, and in 1896 Margaret Leech died. In 1904, the property was sold to the Campbell and Ehrenfried Company. Two of George Leech's sons-in-law, George Leahy, blacksmith and Roger Kay tanner, had been running their businesses on the adjoining properties.
Campbell and Ehrenfried had been formed in 1898 from two large breweries, respectively run by Louis Ehrenfried, a former mayor of Thames and immigrant from Germany, and John Logan Campbell, sometimes known as the 'Father of Auckland' for his philanthropic works and role as a pioneering merchant. At the turn of the century, such breweries found that they needed to buy hotels in order to ensure secure outlets in a competitive market. This activity was in contrast to the situation in earlier colonial New Zealand, where breweries had once been founded to serve the needs of hotels. Breweries also looked to other means of gaining commercial revenue.
In 1909 plans were drawn up by architect B.C. Chilwell for three brick shops to be built adjoining the Swan Hotel on the Parnell Rise side, of two storeys in height. Eleven hotel bedrooms were also incorporated on the first floor of this addition, and two bathrooms on its mezzanine floor. The contractor was Philcox & Son, whose business was on a neighbouring lot on Stanley Street. In 1912 the ground floor facilities of the hotel were also upgraded. The bar was expanded into one of the adjoining shops, and the front entrance was altered. The contractor was J.E. Guthrie. Such modifications took place at a time when the influence of the temperance movement was at its height, nearly gaining national prohibition in the early 1900s.
Hancock & Company Ltd. bought the property in 1927, by which time the premises had changed its name to the Strand Hotel. Hancock & Company was another long-established Auckland brewery, connected with beer production in the city since before 1862. From the 1940s, changes occurred in the nation's drinking habits, which had since the latter half of the nineteenth century been influenced by the temperance movement. Whereas previously drinking in public bars was considered an activity for working class men - with the higher echelons of society either drinking in clubs, at home or not at all - international experiences during the Second World War (1939-1945) created a more liberal attitude. In the era of six o'clock closing liquor licensing laws, a public bar was rough and noisy, and catered for the working man drinking in the short time between work and closing time. Increasingly however, there was a demand for public places for women to drink, and so many hotels created ladies lounges where men were only allowed in the company of women. Private bars were for the entertainment of businessmen.
In 1956 alterations were undertaken which expanded the tavern activities into the entire ground floor of the adjacent shops. While the public bar remained in the 1912 space, a private bar and a ladies lounge were created. The bedrooms and bathrooms were also upgraded. The contractor was P. Shipman & Sons, carrying out the work at an estimated cost of £8,600. The façade was extensively altered, with roughcast stucco over the existing brick and weatherboard significantly altering the appearance of the building.
In this form, the hotel survived minor internal changes, such as removal of the island bar counter in the public bar and the installation of a new cool room and grill between 1962 and 1977. In 1987, under Lion Breweries ownership, external alterations were made to the hotel including larger doorways to serve both bars, rendered in a twentieth-century Colonial Revival style, with Edwardian-influenced details. Ownership of the tavern has subsequently passed to New Zealand Breweries Ltd, Lion Nathan Ltd and the Strand Tavern Ltd 1999. The building continues in use as a public house and hotel.
