You might have walked past the Excelsior pub many times, but have you ever taken notice of its stone face? It’s a stoic reminder of Timaru’s rebuild from the devastating 1868 fire, and Timaru’s early port story.

The Excelsior started out as the Criterion Hotel, and opened 150 years ago in 1873. Here locals, visitors and sailors hung out. They held meetings, stayed the night, drank and sometimes participated in illegal gambling and private dancing.

The bluestone façade stands strong on Stafford Street. However, the early European buildings in Timaru, didn’t always look like this. They were cob cottages or wooden offices, stores, shops, hotels and pubs.

Timaru’s first cottage was built a block in front of the Criterion Hotel 22 years earlier in 1851. The first people to live there were on a mission to establish the first sheep station in the area. Then a former whaler and family moved in, to establish the first accommodation and pub. The Strathallan Immigrant ship brought 110 immigrants from the United Kingdom in 1859, and by 1866 the town’s population grew to around 1000.

The growing town was humming along, boosted by the busy shipping activity at the foot of Strathallan and George Streets. But after all the hard work to establish their lives here, a devastating event would change the people and the townscape forever.

In 1868 a hot north west wind was blowing. A boy was working in a carpenters workshop and left a glue pot over a fire. At 3:30pm some wooden shavings accidentally caught fire. And in just 3 hours the fire had roared down the main street from Church Street Corner to near where the Criterion Hotel is today. The raging fire, fanned by the nor-wester, ruined 42 buildings, (three quarters of the buildings in the area) to piles of ashes and blackened brick chimneys. More than 120 people were left homeless with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

After the devastating fire, the community looked for ways to prevent a disaster like this happening again. A volunteer fire brigade was established and an engine was loaned by an Christchurch insurance company. A new bi-law was created to make sure that all new buildings in the CBD were built stronger, with stone or brick.

In this 1870 photograph shows the rebuild underway after the 1868 fire. This is Stafford and George Street intersection. On the Corner is the new bluestone building built by Richard Turnbull. Looking up the hill you can see the Timaru Herald Offices, the empty site where the Criterion was to be built, and the construction underway of Richard Turnbull’s Stone Store, indicated with arrow.

Here is a 1875 Plan of Timaru Townships Canterbury, N.Z

A section of this map showing the proximity of the 1870 Bank of New Zealand, 1870 Turnbull Store, 1871 Cains Landing Service, and 1873 Criterion Hotel.

In the early 1870s, after the fire, a massive re-build got underway. The street morphed from the wooden past, to new bluestone buildings. These included the 1871 first bay of Cains Landing Services, 1870 Bank of New Zealand (demolished 1961), 1870 Richard Turnbull Stone Store (now Theatre Royal), the 1873 Criterion Hotel, and 1874 Gladstone Board of Works.

Over the years the Criterion pub had had many owners, alterations and new names like the Excelsior. But the stone face of the façade has remained the same for 150 years.

Today there are only a handful of these blue stone buildings in Timaru CBD. Some have been demolished, some renovated and others hide behind paint waiting for their fate or renovation. These buildings are special to Timaru, and are big part of Timaru’s built history.

While the rest of the Criterion building is past it’s use by date, it has been decided that the façade of the Criterion building is worthy of restoration and will be incorporated into the new Heritage building. For many years to come it will continue as an important and stoic face to Timaru’s stone building past.