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Southbridge Hotels
Description
NameSouthbridge Hotels
DescriptionJ.J. Loe (of Leeston fame) erected a combined hotel and general store around February 1867, installing Walter Spring as manager.
By the early 1950s, there was an urgent need for a new hotel in Southbridge.
The 1906 letter of Walter Spring revealed that Southbridge Hotel was a lively place in the early days, reflecting what he called ‘stirring times’. He referred to gold-diggers from the West Coast coming over in their dozens to do the binding of crops at 12 or 14 shillings per acre.
They patronised the hotel well, but the many rows and fights that erupted, forced him to shut the doors at times.
The Royal Hotel was an everyday name in Southbridge a century ago.
At the turn of the century, it could boast 22 well-fumished bedrooms, a large dining room with seating for 40, four sitting rooms, two bar parlours, a billiard room and hot and cold water baths.
The property had a large garden and orchard and ample facilities for horses.
These included six-stalled stable, loose-boxes and three well-watered paddocks.
Patrons, other than numerous locals, included commercial travellers, tourists and fishermen attracted by the ‘good sport’ to be found on the Rakaia River or at Lake Ellesmere.
However, a big blaze around the beginning of 1908 was the end of the ‘Royal’.
All efforts, to date, to unravel the mystery of this ‘elusive’ fire have proved fruitless.
Meanwhile, the old Southbridge Hotel, substantially modified from its original form, was finally demolished in the early 1950s and replaced by the present building.
(Source: George Singleton (2007))
DescriptionJ.J. Loe (of Leeston fame) erected a combined hotel and general store around February 1867, installing Walter Spring as manager. By the early 1950s, there was an urgent need for a new hotel in Southbridge.
The 1906 letter of Walter Spring revealed that Southbridge Hotel was a lively place in the early days, reflecting what he called ‘stirring times’. He referred to gold-diggers from the West Coast coming over in their dozens to do the binding of crops at 12 or 14 shillings per acre.
They patronised the hotel well, but the many rows and fights that erupted, forced him to shut the doors at times.
The Royal Hotel was an everyday name in Southbridge a century ago.
At the turn of the century, it could boast 22 well-fumished bedrooms, a large dining room with seating for 40, four sitting rooms, two bar parlours, a billiard room and hot and cold water baths.
The property had a large garden and orchard and ample facilities for horses.
These included six-stalled stable, loose-boxes and three well-watered paddocks.
Patrons, other than numerous locals, included commercial travellers, tourists and fishermen attracted by the ‘good sport’ to be found on the Rakaia River or at Lake Ellesmere.
However, a big blaze around the beginning of 1908 was the end of the ‘Royal’.
All efforts, to date, to unravel the mystery of this ‘elusive’ fire have proved fruitless.
Meanwhile, the old Southbridge Hotel, substantially modified from its original form, was finally demolished in the early 1950s and replaced by the present building.
(Source: George Singleton (2007))
Connections
Southbridge Hotels. Selwyn Stories, accessed 27/05/2026, https://selwynstories.selwynlibraries.co.nz/nodes/view/6427