The Wains Hotel Building (frequently spelt grammatically but incorrectly as Wain's Hotel and currently operating as Fable Dunedin) is a historic hotel building in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Job Wain started his first hotel in downtown Dunedin in the 1860s, at the height of the Central Otago gold rush. Business flourished, and when the Commercial Bank next door closed Wain expanded his business into that building. He continued to buy nearby properties, and in 1878 contracted to have a major new structure — costing £14,000 — built in

Princes Street Princes Street ( gd, Sràid nam Prionnsan) is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland and the main shopping street in the capital. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, stretching around 1.2 km (three ...

, designed by Mason, Wales, & Stevenson. At that time, the Exchange area where the hotel was constructed was the heart of Dunedin's

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

, so it was very well positioned for major trade.

The building

The Wains Hotel building has an Italianate style, with an elaborate façade noted for its columns,

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s, and carved figures. At ground level, substantial columns of Port Chalmers

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of di ...

rise, topped with capitals of

Kakanui The small town of Kakanui lies on the coast of Otago, in New Zealand, fourteen kilometres to the south of Oamaru. The Kakanui River and its estuary divide the township in two. The part of the settlement south of the river, also known as Kakanui ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

. These columns support arches above which sit carved figures of

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...

Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...

, and

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes asso ...

s. The entranceway is topped by a stone

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

featuring an eagle as its keystone. The upper storeys are equally ornate. Inside, doors and fittings of Tasmanian blackwood complemented the exterior's grandeur. The building is classified as a Category I historic place by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.

Current use

In 2018 the building was refurbished, and opened as a 50-room boutique five-star hotel, Fable Dunedin. The hotel, part of the Fable Hotel Group, includes a restaurant, bar, gym, and meeting facilities.Official website
/ref> The hotel was one of the shooting locations for the 2022 film '' The Royal Treatment''.

References

Myth Making & Myth Busting: the case of Wain's Hotel, Princes Street, Dunedin
, ''NZ HistorySearch'' Hotels in Dunedin Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in Otago {{Oceania-hotel-stub