Warner's Hotel Drowning and Funerals

The hotel here in Cathedral Square, with its Victorian Free Classical style, was completed on October 29, 1901. It was designed by Joseph Madison. In 1910, a fourth story was added. Then in 1917, the northern end of the building was actually torn down, and a theatre was built in its place. That was done to create a noise buffer from the printing presses of the Lyttelton Times Building next door.

The theatre was demolished in 1996, and the space became a beer garden. In 2010, a high-rise Novotel hotel opened here, and the 1901 façade was recreated.

This hotel was designated a Category II heritage building by Heritage New Zealand in 1997. After the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the historic part of the building was demolished later that year. The owner has consent to rebuild, but there's been uncertainty about other large projects nearby, so it hasn't gone ahead yet.

The first hotel on this spot was established in 1863 by John Etherden Coker, who called it the Commercial and Dining Rooms. William Francis Warner became either the second proprietor in 1873 or the third in 1874, and by the mid-1870s, it was known as Warner's Hotel.

Warner was described as "the patriarch among licensed victuallers in Christchurch." He tragically drowned in a boating accident in 1896 in the Avon Heathcote Estuary. His funeral was a big event in Christchurch, and Prime Minister Richard Seddon even sent flowers.

On April 24, 1900, a fire broke out at Warner's Hotel. The wooden part of the building was destroyed, but the more modern section remained habitable. After the fire crews left, the fire reignited.