North shore history with David Verran
117 Mon Desir Hotel, The Promenade, Takapuna c1930s (Ref #: T5883) from the North Shore Image Collection, Takapuna Library.
The Mon Desir Hotel; Forebears & Descendants. There were hotels on the North Shore since the 1850s and one of the first in the Takapuna area was Edward Barry’s Takapuna Hotel, on Barry’s Point. At the time, Shoal Bay was the main access way by boat to the Takapuna and Lake Pupuke areas. Note that the Takapuna wharf was opened until October 1892. On 21 April 1863, Barry successfully applied for a ‘bush licence’ from the Auckland Provincial Council to sell David Verran alcohol. However, his premises burnt down on 3 September 1866 and likely a relation, Roger Barry, took over the bush licence for a new Takapuna Hotel on 16 April 1867. Frederick Cock also successfully obtained a licence to sell alcohol on 19 June 1866, and also based his premises in the Lake Pupuke area. However, in April 1867 he moved to Devonport. Around the same time James Grattan had the licence for Copland’s Inn in Killarney Street by Lake Pupuke. However, concern about the availability of alcohol led the Provincial Council to reduce the number of ‘bush licences’ and by April 1868 on the North Shore there were just two hotels at Devonport and one each at Northcote Point and Albany. In June 1888 the Waitemata Licensing Committee, empowered since 1876 to issue liquor licenses, awarded a licence to the new Lake Hotel on Killarney Street. The hotel was built by local resident, Edwin Harrow, who also gave a name to Milford after his home town in Wales. Harrow’s next door neighbour at Kiteroa in Killarney Street, Sir Henry Brett of the ‘Auckland Star’, was anti-liquor. The hotel had a number of proprietors including George and Belinda Lockley. They became proprietors from 2 December 1896 and remained for a couple of years. Reports are that Belinda was the business brain in the family. The Lake Hotel burned down on 1 March 1909, and some suspect those opposed to alcohol were to blame. In July 1909, local land and tramways developer Paul Hansen sold his substantial property ‘Mon Desir’, on the corner of Hurstmere Road and The Promenade, and moved to Devonport. Born in Bavaria, Paul Maximilian Adolph Hansen had naturalised on 25 October 1899 and had acted as the
The Lake Hotel, Kilarney Stre Shore Image Collection, Tak et, Takapuna c1890s (Ref #: T6288) from the Nor th apuna Library.
Danish consul. Nevertheless, he was arrested in April 1916 in a period of wartime hysteria, and interned as an ‘enemy alien’ along with others of German origin until the end of the First World War. He died 23 February 1938. The new owners developed his former home into a hotel and secured a liquor licence. In the 1930s, the Mon Desir Hotel boasted a putting green and was regarded as one of the top hotels in Auckland. The ‘All Blacks’ stayed there in 1937, and amazed the chef with their prodigious eating habits. In 1963, the hotel building was demolished and the hotel re-opened at Easter 1965 as the renamed Mon Desir Motor Hotel. In 1995, that building was demolished to make way for the present high-rise apartments and in its place in May 1996 to continue to quench local thirsts, the ‘R’toto Pub and Cafe’ opened on the other side of Hurstmere Road. More recently the former R’toto was joined by similar places of alcoholic refreshment.
David Verran is a local history expert and auther of ‘North Shore; An Illustrated History’, available at most local bookshops. Thanks to Kirsty Webb from Takapuna Library for the use of the photographs.
www.channelmag.co.nz Issue 13 - AUGUST 2011