Oamaru - a brief history of Hotel Brydone by Mark Sukhija

The Kingsgate Hotel Brydone was built in 1880 was originally known as the Queens Hotel which was, in turn, destroyed by fire in September 1881. The current building was built in an Italian style and, as I have discovered, is highly decorated by New Zealand standards - especially the façades of the building. The Kingsgate is, apparently, built from Oamaru stone.

When prohibition was introduced in Oamaru in 1906, the building became a boarding house. It remained a boarding house until Mrs Woodham sold the house to the Oamaru Licensing Trust in 1962 when, after much renovation, it was renamed the Brydone Hotel - in honour of Thomas Brydone who arranged for the first shipment of frozen meat to leave from Dunedin in 1882 from his base in Totara in Northern Otago.

The Pacific Wing of the building was constructed in 1975 after part of the original building was demolished. I think this is a crying shame but I'm sure that the new conference room and increased room capacity made it commercially worthwhile.

Further reading