Thames (NZ): The many hotels of The Thames

Whether a family researcher or someone with an interest in the history of Thames, there is one topic that is usually explored - that of the Hotels of Thames. A few of the hotels have been listed in previous posts and there is a now an up-to-date article in the Treasury Journal.

As more papers have been released on Papers past, it has become so much easier to verify and find the existence of new, previously unknown hotels. Previous figures were that there were about 100 hotels in old Thames at Shortland, Grahamstown, Tararu, Parawai or the hills behind the township. A more realistic number will add tens more - and this will be released when my latest research is complete.

In the year 1870 alone there were 102 hotels operating at that time. There were 39 in SHORTLAND, 43 in GRAHAMSTOWN and 20 in the outlying suburbs of The Thames. A photo around this time of the COURT HOUSE HOTEL in Queen Street, is an example of an early hotel of Thames. Hotels took their name from a wide variety of sources. This hotel named as it was opposite the new Court House and Government buildings on Queen Street (between Albert and Cochrane Streets).

Thames Advertiser 3 Oct 1876