Saturday, February 7, 2015

Thames (NZ): Second Look - Brian Boru Hotel 1910

BRIAN BORU HOTEL 1910.
The Brian Boru Hotel, Thames, in 1910, showing hansom cabs outside. A fascinating photo that gives the hotel some mystique like a wild west hotel. I have always wondered about possible scenarios. Taxi-cabs awaiting to take home people from a banquet, are they in a procession?
A SECOND LOOK, shows the driver is out of the fourth cab that is in Pollen Street (far right). Is it just a photo shoot pose? The cab above is a beauty, the horses well behaved, awaiting instructions.

 
Around at the Richmond Street entrance, there is a man waiting under the porch near the side door, standing under the name above the verandah. Does he have a clerical collar? Or is it just the collar of the day. Is it too much to think that this could even be a funeral procession? Note that the PARLOR is written on the window to the right of the door.
 
The publican of the day is Kate Twohill, her name is over the front door at the intersection of Pollen and Richmond Streets. Kate was publican from 1896-1918.
 
Source: Brian Boru Hotel in Thames. Ref: 1/2-008581-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23087904