Hotel toasts fully protected status

The Fitzroy Hotel will be classed a category A historic building from today. Photo / Martin Sykes

The Fitzroy Hotel, built in 1855 and Auckland's oldest surviving hotel building, will today be officially protected from being demolished or removed from its site in Wakefield St.

The Auckland City Council will complete a legal process to make the hotel - which has been under a death threat for most of this decade - a category A building.

The category A protection is a victory for heritage campaigner Allan Matson, who has been fighting the council since April 2004 to recognise the historical significance of one of the oldest brick buildings in the city.

The brick and plaster structure now standing on the site was once owned by brewer Richard Seccombe, whose company merged with another brewery to create the forerunner of Lion Breweries.

The Fitzroy has not been used as a pub for about a century, but was home to Wakefield Press during the 1960s, publisher of literary figures including Rex Fairburn, Maurice Duggan, O.E. Middleton and Denis Glover.

The council's heritage team gave the hotel a score of 57 points when Mr Matson began his campaign in 2004, which was not enough to stop a developer knocking it down.

When the council raised the score to 72 points, still making it a category B building, Mr Matson appealed, argued it merited a category A score of 106 points and finally settled with the council on 98 points.

The score was approved by the Environment Court in August.

It is understood the council is considering buying the building once a dispute over the ownership is resolved.

In May last year, Southern Cross Building Society, financiers for developer Lily Zhong, put the building up for mortgagee sale. Her company planned to mutilate the old building by driving pillars for an apartment tower through its heart.

RISING UP THE RANKS
* April 2004: 57 pts (category B).
* November 2004: 72 pts (category B).
* November 2008: 82 pts (Auckland City), 106 pts (Allan Matson) (category A).
* August 2009: 98 pts (category A).