The Thistle Inn: Then and Now
This blog post from Wellington Heritage Festival is an opportunity to showcase the marvellous collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library, and the beautiful, enduring venue of the Thistle Inn. This is the third of three hospitality-themed blog posts to celebrate the spaces where we can learn about history – and share food and drink.
The Thistle Inn, located on the corner of Mulgrave Street and Kate Sheppard Place in Thorndon, is the oldest pub in Pōneke. On the national stage, it claims the title of oldest pub in Aotearoa still operating from its original location. It is notable also for receiving the country’s second-ever liquor license.
The first Thistle Inn opened in October 1840 but sadly burnt down in 1866. A new building was erected that same year, in 1866, which is the two-storey, wooden Thistle Inn we know and love today.
The Thistle Inn, circa 23 July 1951, captured by an Evening Post photographer
Source: Thistle Inn. Evening Post (Newspaper. 1865-2002): Photographic negatives and prints of the Evening Post newspaper. Ref: 114/327/08-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23141905
The Thistle Inn, 28 September 2026
The Thistle Inn is listed as a Category 1 Historic Place on the New Zealand Heritage List / Rārangi Kōrero – see List No. 1439 – and features on Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga’s Rainbow List. The HNZPT List entry report commends the place for its ‘outstanding historical significance as one of the country’s oldest hotels still in business’. It expands on the ways in which ‘From the beginning, the Thistle Inn filled an important social function as one of the first centres of social life in Wellington. As a working man's club, it had a tradition of hospitality.’
The site of the pub historically connected and bridged the gap between the two main flats of Te Aro and Thorndon. Notably, its position at the bottom of Mulgrave Street meant that, until the harbour reclamation in 1876, it was mere metres from the sea. A Spinoff article from 2020 explains how ‘Nowadays it’s a good 500m from the shoreline, but when it was built in 1840, it was a beachfront property.’
Intersection of Thorndon Quay and Mulgrave Street, photographed by William Henry Whitmore Davis in 1866. The Thistle Inn can be seen in the centre-left of the image, and Old St Paul’s Cathedral on the right
Source: Thorndon Quay and Mulgrave Street, Wellington. Davis, William Henry Whitmore, 1812-1901: Photographs of Wellington and district. Ref: 10x8-2087-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23073579
The same intersection now, in 2026. Photograph taken from the beginning of Featherston Street
According to HNZPT, the Thistle Inn was ‘popular with sailors’, with the palpable nautical atmosphere accentuated by the marked tilt of the floor of the main bar. Anecdotally, sailors would brace themselves against the bar, ‘as though on a deck sharply lifting in Cook Strait’.
Rumour has it that rangatira Te Rauparaha visited the Thistle Inn too, which is explored in the 2024 Spinoff article, ‘Did Te Rauparaha really drink at the Thistle Inn?’
The Thistle Inn, 16 May 1958, captured for the Evening Post by an unidentified staff photographer
Source: Thistle Inn Hotel, Mulgrave Street, Wellington. Evening Post (Newspaper. 1865-2002): Photographic negatives and prints of the Evening Post newspaper. Ref: EP/1958/1537-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23168720
The Thistle Inn, 28 September 2026
There is also an important connection between the Thistle Inn and renowned New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923). Her 1907 short story, ‘Leves Amores’, is set at the Thistle Inn – written when she was only 19 years old.
The story features an implicit romantic relationship between two women who return to the Thistle Inn after a night at the opera. Mansfield’s lyricism is woven throughout the prose:
So we dined somewhere and went to the Opera. It was late, when we came out into the crowded night street, late and cold. She gathered up her long skirts. Silently we walked back to the Thistle Hotel, down the white pathway fringed with beautiful golden lilies, up the amethyst-shadowed staircase.
Inspired in part by Mansfield’s poetic voice, the Wellington Heritage Festival team took the opportunity to learn more about the Thistle Inn and its surroundings. We were struck by how much the landscape around the building had changed between 1840 and 2026, while the Thistle Inn remains utterly recognisable and robust, a pillar of the past. The passage of time – 186 years to be precise – has treated the hotel well.
The Thistle Inn in July 1963, photographed by Alan Smith, with the Fiducia tram in the foreground
Source: Fiducia tram in Mulgrave Street, Wellington. Smith, Alan Eldridge, 1945-: Collection. Ref: 35mm-02052-6-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23226157
The Thistle Inn, 28 September 2026
The Thistle Inn is open Monday to Saturday from 11:30am till late – pop in for a drink or a meal at Pōneke’s oldest pub and experience its timeless hospitality.
And be sure to book for ‘An Evening with Wellington's Ghosts’, hosted by historian and lover of all things spooky Amanda McVitty at the Thistle Inn as part of Wellington Heritage Festival 2026. The first session is fully booked but there are limited spaces available for the second session on Thursday 5 November – so get in quick!
The Thistle Inn, 28 September 2026