Historic Central Hawke's Bay hotel 'has had a bit of a hiding' but new owner determined to restore its glory

The Tavistock Hotel has been scanned and computerised to help with earthquake strengthening and refurbishment.

The Tavistock Hotel's new owner says the way the historic building has been treated is "unforgivable", but he plans to restore its glory. Rachel Wise takes a look at the Tavistock's past, and a glance at its future.

The 1916 proprietors of the Tavistock Hotel wouldn't recognise the place these days.

Not least because the most recent images produced of the historic Waipukurau pub are laser scans, allowing the building to be 3D-modelled.

Every detail of the old building — inside and out — has been computerised.

It's a feat that would be mind-boggling to the 1916 proprietors Donald and Ida Blanche McLeod.

The Tavistock Hotel has been scanned and computerised to help with earthquake strengthening and refurbishment.

The McLeods were proprietors of the Tavistock Hotel from 1908, at its original site on the corner of Tavistock Rd where it was built in 1856, until 1918, two years after it had been rebuilt adjacent to the railway line on the corner of Racecourse Rd.

Then, the Tavistock boasted two dining rooms, a commercial room, a billiards room and a stable.

By 1922 the hotel was under the management of a Mr Keyver, who was succeeded by the Irvine family who produced Waipukurau's first All Black, hooker Bill "Bull" Irvine.

By the time the Hawke's Bay Earthquake struck the region in 1931, the Limbrick family were the ones in charge of cleaning up the chimney bricks that littered the road and broken glassware and crockery that was all over the hotel floors.

From 1932 until 1942, Cuthbert and Leila Crooks were the hotel's proprietors and their daughter Shona remembers growing up there.

"It was a very upmarket hotel and the dining room always had white damask tablecloths and serviettes, with nice silverware."

In the early 1950s, Ray Manning was a Daily Telegraph boy selling newspapers outside the hotel's entrance for sixpence.

The hotel interior will be brought back to its former glory.

"At 6.15pm the bar had to be cleared, and as regular as clockwork the local policeman would check the place out to make sure everyone had departed.

"That's when my father, the barman, would let me in to sweep the floor which was covered in beer and cigarette butts ... and all the money that had dropped out of men's pockets.

''No women were ever seen in a public bar back then."

The Tavistock has also been a courthouse, a church, and it is said the public bar was the inspiration for the bar in Alan Duff's Once Were Warriors.

Rumours of ghosts abound, including a "stabbed man" and a crying child.

But now, the Tavistock Hotel is in new hands and has a secure future.

Owner Rex Michau grew up in Waipukurau and remembers special occasions at the hotel with his family and its "grand spaces".

"This is Waipukurau's iconic gateway building. The lack of upkeep and the internal damage to the decor that it's suffered are unforgivable.''

Michau says it's a fantastic project likely to keep him busy for the next two years.

"I love the building. It was a bit daunting when I first walked in ... the place has had a bit of a hiding, but I want to give it back its original glory.

"I've walked around it a million times and it's just a sunny, warm, inviting place.

"My father tells stories of Ma Bartrum and how she looked after her guests."

The trusted Rene "Ma" Bartrum's long-stay tenants would leave their pay packet with her and request that she manage their money.

Michau spent 27 years in London, with an engineering business that included building modular hotel systems in Britain, Africa and Australia. He returned to Waipukurau five years ago.

After building modular hotels for Accor and factories for major oil companies, "this project is a straightforward repair job", he says.

"Above the first floor the building is native timber and this makes it quite sound. We can preserve the history and external facades, while bringing it up to code. "

Michau's first priority was to get the building dry and secure, fixing electrics and "finding out what I was dealing with".

The entire building has been laser-scanned as the first part of the redesign job.

"It's now 3D-modelled so you can walk through it on a computer."

This, along with a geotech survey, will allow civil engineers to bring the building up to National Building Standard levels.

"Now we can get it exactly right," says Michau.

Recently, when opening parts of the building, more steel than the records showed was discovered.

"This was a great find as this so-called "condemned building", is in fact very strong and now only needs modest strengthening.

''If this had been known previously I am sure she would have been taken on by investors much sooner."

The building still has its quirks.

Michau has discovered plumbing "that's going to nowhere".

The 1970s extension that forms a wing in the middle of the building is going as it's ''the main concern in terms of earthquake rating. The best solution is to remove it".

Other work includes redecorating the top floors while keeping classic features: sash windows, Art Deco fingerplates and washbasin surrounds, and timber panelling.

The top floor has already ropened as accommodation, featuring 15 single rooms with facilities including a laundry service.

Ultimately the building will include 15 single rooms, seven en suite rooms and 12 apartments.

Downstairs there will be apartments, a new bar reaching into the lobby and disabled hotel rooms, a new toilet block and a grand piano that is of the same year the Tavistock Hotel originally opened.

There will once again be a bar and eatery, featuring the history of Waipukurau and the Tavistock in all its incarnations.

"It will be a record of what the building was, as it enters its new future."