It's got one ale of a history ...

More of Auckland's stately buildings have  had the hand of protection extended to them. John Landrigan profiles two in 'Vultures Lane'.
It's the oldest pub among some of our oldest buildings on one of our most colourful, historical lanes. It is reputed to be haunted and took after-hours lock-ins a little too  literally for some sailors.
Now 145 years old, the Queens Ferry Hotel is one of two buildings just classified by the Historic Places Trust in the historically well-heeled Vulcan Lane.
More than the building's age and dignified frontage ensures its place in history. During  almost a century and a half its clientele must have downed millions of ales.
At one time, streetwalkers were known to "patrol" the footpaths around the three-storey brick hostelry and it was frequented by such unsavoury characters as bookmakers, criminals and journalists.
Why journalists? They drank in the Queens Ferry to avoid running into the police and lawyers they were writing about who were drinking in neighbouring Vulcan Lane bars, says the current Queens Ferry manager Nick Enman.
He's keen to take us on a tour and talk about the "eerie aura" staff report feeling in some of the rooms.
"Four people died here including the first publican. Some staff refuse to go down to the basement at night. It has an impressive history," says Mr Enman with a wee grin.
The Scots militia met here in the hotel's early days, Freemasons frequented it in the 1880s and a machine gun used in the notorious 1963 Bassett Rd murder was assembled in the cellar.
Also kept in the basement in the 1800s were cages in which sailors were locked after drinking sessions, says Mr Enman, so they would not miss their boats the next day. He points to a small window out of which the sailors were smuggled. Below it ran a stream, so it was the practice of hungover salts to drop into dinghies and row back to Queens Wharf.
The Queens Ferry's name is derived from the Scottish hometown of the founding publican John Robertson. Mr Robertson and his wife, May, who took over the manager's role, both died of natural causes on the premises.
It might not bode well for Mr Enman but two other publicans have died on the site.
Vulcan Lane first housed clockmakers, coachsmiths, solicitors, a general store, flour and grain merchants and bootmakers.  But after the Queens Ferry and, later, the Occidental appeared, it was overridden by bookmakers, streetwalkers and peddlers.
By the 1920s there were so many bookmakers in the lane it was christened Vultures Lane. The literary set, including Frank Sargeson and James Baxter, mingled with the journos soon after.
Although historic listing does not guarantee protection to a building, it flags to councils that it has historic significance, lending weight to it being scheduled on a council's district plan.
The former Cleave's Building at No 10 Vulcan Lane was also registered by the trust in June.
The two buildings join the Vulcan, Giffords and Prudential buildings, Occidental and Norfolk House and Vulcan Lane itself as being recognised.
As would have been written by those long gone journalists: "We were somewhat surprised to find, in this unpretending hostelry, such first-class accommodation as is provided by Mr Enman for his customers".
The full histories of Cleave's building and and Queens Ferry Hotel follow. Both are kindly supplied by the Historic Places Trust.
Cleave's Building
Built or heavily remodelled in 1900, the former Cleave's Building is a key
component an important group of historically significant commercial
buildings in Vulcan Lane off Auckland's Queen Street.
Until 1912 the place
was the commercial premises of Arthur Cleave a noted Auckland
businessman who had founded his print and publishing enterprise at the
address over two decades earlier.
Prior the founding of colonial Auckland in 1840, the Queen Street gully was
known as Horotiu and was subject to intermittent Maori occupation. Vulcan
Lane was created as one of Auckland's initial colonial thoroughfares,
connecting Queen Street and High Street in the town's commercial district
as a narrow alleyway. A single-storey brick store had been erected on the
site possibly as early as 1858-9 and certainly by 1866. The use of brick was
obligatory after the introduction of planning regulations to control fire in the
commercial quarters of Auckland during the mid 1850s.
In 1871 politician James Farmer purchased the building, by which time extensions including a second storey may have been completed. The structure was leased to wine
and spirit merchants until about 1880, then used as offices for the Free
Lance newspaper. At this time Vulcan Lane was noted both for its drinking
culture and as a focus for the printing industry.

In 1889, the premises were taken over Arthur Cleave (1862?-1933), who
established a successful printing and publishing business there. Cleave was
a significant colonial publisher, with popular titles including the Auckland
Provincial Directory and the New Zealand Sporting and Dramatic Review
(the latter for a time the industry magazine of licensed victuallers).
Pressure for larger premises may have resulted from new technology in the printing
trade, and the launch of new publications such as the New Zealand
Illustrated Magazine which included contributions from noted New Zealand
writers and illustrators. In 1899, Cleave purchased the property and
temporarily relocated the business early the following year to enable
re-building or remodelling of the printing works.
It is unclear whether the resulting brick premises were entirely new or
incorporated parts of the earlier structure.  Its architect is also unknown. The
enlarged three-storey building exhibited ornate Italianate influences of a type
favoured by the late-Victorian and Edwardian mercantile community. Its
upstairs windows appear to have been larger than those generally adopted
for earlier commercial premises, potentially allowing better visibility inside
the printing works. The ground floor may have accommodated a large shop
with a side passage providing access to a rear store room and basement.
Cleave sold the property in 1910, moving his printing business to yet larger
premises in Vulcan Lane in 1912.
The new owner-occupant was a coal merchant and former seafarer, Captain
James Smith. Smith had a fourth storey added to the building in circa 1912,
using a similar architectural style. Tenants prior to 1920 included racing
secretaries who benefited from the location between the Queen's Ferry and
Occidental Hotels in Vulcan Lane, at this time the unofficial bookmakers'
headquarters in Auckland.
Music importer and professional musician Arthur Eady subsequently purchased the property, leasing it out to a variety of businesses. Alterations in the mid twentieth century included the creation of new shop frontages and rearrangement of internal staircases. The shop was remodelled in 1957 for Brenner's Contemporary Design Centre, one of the first modernist design stores in New Zealand.
The building suffered fire damage to its roof and upper floor in 1972, and was successively purchased and sold by property and investment companies between 1979 and 2003.  Extensive renovations carried out in 1998, included a new shop front and the
creation of a central staircase.  It remains in commercial use as a bar and a
restaurant (2009).
The former Cleave's Building has aesthetic significance for its ornamental
Italianate facade and its visual contribution to an important heritage
streetscape. It has architectural significance as a surviving purpose-built or
remodelled printery, and as small-scale urban building of a type that once
characterised the heart of Auckland's colonial commercial centre. The place
has cultural significance as the place of publication of the New Zealand
Illustrated Magazine which aspired to contribute to the development of a
national identity. It has historical significance for its strong association with
the New Zealand printing and publishing industry and particularly with Arthur
Cleave a figure of regional significance. The place also has historical
significance for the various commercial uses it housed over time, reflecting
the changing character of commerce and small business in inner city
Auckland for over a century.
Queens Ferry Hotel

Dating from at least 1871 and possibly incorporating earlier remnants, the
Queen's Ferry Hotel is a key component of an important group of historically
significant commercial buildings in Vulcan Lane off Auckland's Queen Street.
Brick premises on the property were initially erected for John Robertson in
the late 1850s as a retail store and were converted into a hotel in 1865.

Remaining in use as a bar, the Queen's Ferry is an early surviving example
of a continuously licensed building in central Auckland. Prior to the founding of colonial Auckland in 1840, the Queen Street gully was known as Horotiu and was subject to intermittent Maori occupation.
In June 1842 sawyer John Robertson (1795?-1877), who had participated in
the founding the colonial capital at Auckland in 1840, purchased a small site
in Vulcan Lane - a narrow thoroughfare forming part of the town's early
street system. The timber dwelling he constructed there is said to have
incorporated a shop, which was destroyed by fire in 1858. A replacement
brick store was erected in circa 1858-9, a couple of years after regulations
had been introduced requiring the use of appropriate construction materials
to prevent fire in Auckland's commercial centre.  Two storeys high with a
slate roof, the building may have had a basement.

In 1865, Robertson converted the building into a public house naming it the
Queen's Ferry after his Scottish birthplace. The hotel was of 'row' rather
than of 'corner' type, being conjoined in a continuous terrace by other
buildings. Commonplace at the time, row hotels were less prominently
located than pubs on corner sites and may have retained a more intimate
'public house' tradition for longer than their corner counterparts. The
Queen's Ferry became a popular venue for the meetings of mining
companies and other groups. It was the first licensed premises in Vulcan
Lane, an area that was becoming increasingly associated with the wine and
liquor industry and which gained further notoriety subsequently. In 1870 the
Occidental Hotel opened nearby as a competing establishment. This was
also converted from earlier retail premises.

Perhaps in response, a two storey brick rear extension was added to the
Queen's Ferry in 1871. This was designed by architect Richard Keals and
accommodated a commercial room on the ground floor, and bedrooms and
sitting rooms upstairs.
In 1882, five years after Robertson's death, the place was altered to meet
the requirements of the Licensing Act 1881. The works designed by prominent
Auckland architect Edward Bartley added a third storey to the front of the
building and a new fac?ade, giving the hotel a more impressive appearance in
keeping with new public houses of the time.
It is unclear how much of the circa 1858-9 fabric remained. In general, colonial
construction more often involved modification than total demolition.

By the 1890s the Queen's Ferry was popular with licensed bookmakers who
transacted business there. Following internal alterations in 1902, the hotel
had eleven rooms including the bars, a sitting room and a dining room. It
was leased by Campbell and Ehrenfried, the first of several liquor concerns
to hold a business interest in the establishment over the following decades.

For most of the twentieth century the hotel remained popular as a working
class pub, with patrons including sailors, bookmakers, journalists and others.  
It was evidently a popular drinking place for literary people for some decades
commencing in the 1930s, and was frequented at various times by notable
New Zealand writers including James Baxter, Denis Glover, Frank Sargeson,
Rex Fairburn and typographer Bob Lowry.

In 1958, a guest lounge and women's bathroom were created on the first
floor reflecting an increased patronage by women. In the 1960s, a period
when hotels faced increasingly stiff competition from chartered clubs and
restaurants, the two ground floor bars were converted into a single, less
intimate bar, and the first floor bar was enlarged to encompass the entire
floor.  In many other pubs, these changes had occurred some decades
previously.
Between 1977 and 2003, the building was purchased and sold by several
property and investment companies with extensive renovations occurring
in 1998.  In 2000 the second floor was gutted by fire and repaired.
The building remains in use as a bar (2009), maintaining a continuous
function established in 1865.
The Queen's Ferry Hotel has aesthetic significance for its ornamental
nineteenth-century facade and its contribution to an important heritage
streetscape. It has architectural significance as a rare surviving example of
a Victorian-era 'row' public house in central Auckland. The place is historically
important for demonstrating the impact of liquor licensing requirements,
including the 1881 Licensing Act after which a new ornate frontage and other
alterations were made. It also has considerable value for reflecting the
development of the retail and liquor trades from the early colonial period,
possibly as early as the 1850s, and extending to the present day. It has high
social significance as a place of social interaction over a period of 150 years
initially as the site of a general store, and subsequently as a popular place of
recreation and gathering.It has value as an early continuously licensed building
in central Auckland, reflecting the socialimportance of alcohol and drinking
during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including among journalists,
literary figures such as Bob Lowry, James Baxter, Frank Sargeson and Rex
Fairburn, and within working-class male culture.