Rob Roy Hotel on the move…again

Posted Friday, August 27 2010.

In August 2010 the Rob Roy Hotel (former Birdcage Tavern) was moved to make way for the construction of the Victoria Park Tunnel. Preservation and re-siting of the 1885-86 hotel, now owned by NZTA, forms part of a general restoration of the wider area - which also includes the restoration of the Campbell Free Kindergarten, Victoria Park Market and the eventual streetscape upgrade at the intersection of Franklin Road and Victoria Street West, all of which will take place once the tunnel project is completed in 2012.

Moving the hotel was the climax of six months of painstaking planning and preparation to ensure preservation of the Rob Roy as a landmark in the Freemans Bay community for the next 100 years. Preparation for the initial move involved structural strengthening of the building and providing new foundations at temporary location forty metres along Franklin Road onto which the masonry hotel was slid, using specially built concrete runway beams. The move was been designed with the expertise of the Wellington firm of engineers, Dunning Thornton Consultants.

Salmond Reed’s key role in this process is to ensure that the heritage values of the hotel are maintained during this whole process. Working alongside archaeologist Clough & Associates we were responsible for the documentation of the hotel and are currently working with NZTA to ensure that the Rob Roy is reinstated and adapted for on-going use once it has been slid back to its original location over the southern entrance to the new motorway tunnel.

This second move will take place on Tuesday 12 April 2011.