HotelRoyalThames

This is my salute to a wonderul classic Edwardian building clinging desperately to the pages of Thames History. Let me tell you a story of the rip roaring early days of gold mining in THAMES NEW ZEALAND, and the story of a beautiful Edwardian Hotel slumbering , neglected forgotten, a piece of historical flotsam caught in the leaves of history....

the HOTEL ROYAL, built in c1904...original building 1864.

I lived for 35yrs in WAIHI another early day gold mining NZ town which was home to the largest open cast mine in the Northern Hemisphere, the MARTHA GOLD MINE. I have a English mate Shirley and we both have a love of old buildings, history and collect old bric a brac........one day in 2000/1 we took a trip to coastal THAMES, and while looking around Grahamstown which is quite historical, with its turn of the century quaint cottages and shops, we ventured into Williamson Street, and straight before us standing in isolated beauty, a becalmed vision of pink and patchwork weatherbeaten wood , was a large turn of the century HOTEL! Wow we couldn't believe our eyes, it looked like something out of Rip van Winkle land, frozen in time ! empty, desolate, looking so time worn and weary....how we would love to have this building and restore it. We were amazed at the sheer neglect, and total lack of maintenance, surely it was a Historic Building?, it looked so very old to us, and also very dilapidated, rotten boards, totally rusted out guttering to the fore, leaking dirty water down the walls, wrapt in an air of decay what little paint there was, hardly covering the weather worn boards beneath, what a crying shame.........continue at website below........

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE THE SAGA OF THE ROYAL HOTEL GRAHAMSTOWN THAMES NEW ZEALAND AND HER FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL...........