The Cavalier Tavern - The Suffolk Arms
Getting to the hotel in those early days was a bit of a mission. Access was up or down
a muddy track running beside a grass verge and when it rained water flowed down from the Dedwood Ridge both behind and in front of the pub, hence the naming of Cascade and Spring Streets.
The Suffolk Arms also served as a meeting place for community groups, particularly the Dedwood Highway Board whose members had to organise and lobby the government to finance the building of new roads. Locals could not afford the sixpenny fare to travel on the horse drawn trams that had to reconnoitre through the mud on College Hill. Instead, those hardy souls had to struggle on foot up the steep incline to attend the many ratepayer meetings held at the hotel, which were often “very rowdy”.
A letter in an 1871 edition of the Cross makes for hilarious reading. The writer evidently had strong objection to another correspondent who dared to opine that the board should be doing something about unformed roads in the the Dedwood Highway district. “Does that self-conceited individual wish the Board to throw a lot of metal on unformed roads. I have a strong suspicion that he would like a good metalled road to his own door paid for by other persons. Let ‘Ratepayer’ pay his rates and not expect rates paid by other people spent for his benefit”. Finally, in 1878 the track was tarsealed so that more people could attend the meetings and College Hill was the first footpath in Ponsonby to be asphalted, but it was many years before the road was sealed.
Interestingly, a building originally used for storing war material became redundant after the war and Messrs T.T. Masefield and Field persuaded the government to allow for its removal to Jervois Road near the site which would eventually be occupied by the Gluepot. The entrepreneurs intended it to serve as a centre of culture and community groups in the area. At a public meeting in 1875, very few share options were taken up so with minimal capital, the company had mountainous debts and liabilities. There weren’t many applications for its use and meanwhile the Suffolk Arms continued to be popular for social groups and sporting fans. The Dedwood Highway Board continued to post announcements there about rate levies that were up for public inspection.
Not much has been altered at the Cavalier over the years, apart from the name change. The stables and cobblestone wood-fired kitchen are still in place, although they are used as storage nowadays.
Early pubs generally had a corner entrance lit by a gas lamp so imbibers could easily locate their favourite watering hole.
The Cavalier has a replica lamp still in place on the corner of Cascade Street. The historical décor has been retained in all its glory with gilt-framed paintings of British royalty, military and sporting events decorating the walls, most installed around the time the pub was built. More recently added accoutrements are totally appropriate, such as the large sandstone sculpture of a cavalier sitting above the bar which in its turn, is fashioned from wood recovered from a demolished church in Bristol. Another cavalier image is inlaid on an intricately carved kauri fireplace, adding to the olde world ambience.
Understandably, The Cavalier has had many owners during its long history, among them John Campbell in 1897. It is protected by the Auckland City Council for its heritage value. (DEIRDRE ROELANTS)