In it for Chick's

It's been the scene of mariners, mystery and murder. But its new gig is music. Nigel Benson visits Chick's Hotel.

• Quiet as a grave

All hotels have their stories and legends.

Fact and fiction mix freely when lubricated with spirits.

But few have quite as contentious a history as Chick's Hotel in Port Chalmers.

And, more than a century on, the arguments continue.

Chick's was lying dormant until two years ago, when the old hotel once again became a focal point in Port.

Publican Hector Hazard arrived in Port in 2004, after a career working as a bicycle courier in London and Melbourne.

"It's such a nice community here. I could see it clearly, because I'd just arrived," he recalls.

Mr Hazard established table tennis nights at the Masonic Lodge, which grew to include band gigs, before signing a 15-year lease at Chick's and reopening its doors on August 21, 2008.

"Chick's wasn't really planned," he says.

"It had been empty for two years and I was just looking for a roof over my head. It was in such a state and nobody else was interested in it.

"I realised what a good opportunity it was and decided to give it a go and it's all just happened organically, really. The community got right behind it.

"People helped paint and get it all up to scratch. Then we just started doing gigs and here we are 18 months later and it's going OK. Lady Luck's definitely been on our side," he reflects.

"It's a fascinating and intriguing building. It's rare to find a pub like this that hasn't been homogenised into something tasteless. The bands love playing here and staying here."

Chick's Hotel was built in 1876 by former Port Chalmers mayor Henry "Harry" Dench, on the site of his Jerusalem Coffee and Chop House and Billiard Saloon, which he opened in 1864.

The Otago Daily Times carried an advertisement for the new hotel on December 26, 1877.

"A fine three-storey building of blue stone and brick, with a flat roof, which affords a promenade and splendid view. Contains 22 rooms, the smallest of which is 13 by 3 feet, and all furnished in the very best and most comfortable manner.

" There are bath-rooms for Ladies and Gentlemen, supplied with hot and cold, fresh and salt water, boats for the use of the boarders and altogether there are possible few watering-place hotels in the Colonies which afford better accommodation."

The new hotel was called the Jerusalem Hotel, but known by locals as "Dench's Hotel", because pubs were commonly named after the owner.

However, Mr Dench hit financial problems in 1878 and was forced to sell the business.