St. George Hotel

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The Hotel St George is one of Wellington, New Zealand's most prominent buildings. Located in the heart of the city, it was briefly the country's largest hotel. The hotel was designed by architect William Prouse and built in 1929-30 from steel framed reinforced concrete at the cost of $100,000, and is one of the city's best maintained art deco buildings. The site had previously been the site of a building owned by early Wellington settler John Plimmer (after whom the suburb of Plimmerton is named).

The hotel was widely regarded as the capital city's top hotel, and has played host to many events since its opening. During World War II, it operated as a brothel for military officers. It played host to The Beatles during their 1964 tour (when they stayed in what is now room 305), and was the first choice hotel for visiting dignitaries for many years, from royalty to international national rugby teams. ^[1] The hotel was also host to the inaugural New Zealand national science fiction convention in 1979, and was also a venue for the convention in 1980 and 1987.

The hotel consists of 8 floors, with 84 single rooms with ensuites, 42 single rooms with shared ensuites, 80 single rooms with no ensuite and 26 shared rooms.

[edit] Festival of The Arts late night venue

Mike Knapp, Simon Morris, Paul Walker, Wellington 1992

In 1992 the third floor was used as an entertainment venue, for late night shows after the main performances around Wellington city. Many well known musicians from around New Zealand turned up to play in their own bands, or spontaneously created 'jam' bands. the television sets from all the unused rooms (the entire third floor) were arranged in an array, and computer graphics shown.

St George entertainment - Wellington 1992

The hotel has been used since 1994 as a student hostel first for Massey University in Wellington and then (since 2006) for Victoria University for much of the year, and is that university's second-largest hostel, housing 232 students. It still serves as a hotel during the summer university recess.

The Hotel St George underwent major renovations in 2005 and continues to be upgraded well into 2006. The annex is yet to be completed and currently only houses half the number of students it will be able to contain upon completion.