Lopdell House

Lopdell House is a category I historic building in Titirangi, Auckland. It was first opened as Hotel Titirangi in 1930. In 1942 it was bought by the Ministry of Education and became a school for the deaf, and then a teacher's residential centre named Lopdell House. The Waitemata City Council (later Waitakere City Council and then merged with Auckland Council) purchased it in 1983 and leased it to the Lopdell House Society, who reopened in 1986 as an arts centre. Adjacent to the house is a statue of Titirangi founder, Henry Atkinson.

The original architects of Hotel Titirangi were Messrs. Bloomfield, Owen and Morgan of Auckland. Of these, William Swanson Read Bloomfield, based on Shortland Street, was one of the original directors of the Hotel Titirangi Ltd company. He was born in Gisborne and is considered to be the first qualified New Zealand architect of Maori descent, having trained in England, Europe and at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. Bloomfield retired in 1959 and is also known for the design of Queen's Arcade (Queen St), Yorkshire House (cnr Shortland and O'Connell Sts) and the Masonic Temple (St Benedict's St).

Designed in a Spanish Mission style to accommodate over 60 guests, Hotel Titirangi was noted for having central heating, hot and cold water in every bedroom, and private bathrooms attached to five of the 24 bedrooms, all of which were fully carpeted. The building also had tea-rooms, two shops, a post office, a roof garden and a garage below. The main room on the ground floor was a tearoom and cabaret, running the whole length of the building to accommodate 200 people, with a dining room on the first floor. The cabaret featured a special dance floor laid down on rubber buffers. Particularly innovative was the installation of a "Wireless and Talking Machine", which allowed music or talking to be simultaneously broadcast to the cabaret, roof garden and all landings.

In 1935, alterations were undertaken to add a new lounge on the roof, to enlarge the tearoom and dining room, and to convert a shop in the building to a private dining room. The work was carried out by Mr P.W. Peate and the architect was Mr L.S. Piper.

On 2 September 1928, the company Hotel Titirangi Ltd was established to purchase a property and tearooms from Mr W.A. Bishop for 3,000 pounds in order to establish a modern hotel. The company was established with 50,000 pounds capital, divided into 50,000 shares, and is said to have issued 2000 shares to local residents. The hotel was built to capitalise on Titirangi tourism, particularly daytrippers from Auckland. The initial company prospectus describes the significance of the location, noting that "all roads converge at this point, consequently a large volume of holiday and week-end traffic, as well as a smaller stream during the week, must all pass right by the Hotel on its way to the beaches, Atkinson Park, Huia, Cornwallis, Laingholm, Exhibition Drive, Kaurilands and Mt Atkinson."

Early reports described the addition of a hotel as making "Titirangi the equivalent to Auckland of what the Blue Mountains are to Sydney, with the advantage that one resort is half-an-hour's run from the city and [the] other 100 miles." The first Hotel Titirangi Limited AGM in 1929 confirmed that the contract for building the hotel had been let to Mr P. W. Peate for 20,000 pounds, and that sufficient progress was anticipated by mid-1930 so a certain amount of accommodation could be made available.

Hotel Titirangi was officially opened on the afternoon of 20 November 1930 by former Prime Minister and then Kaipara MP, Gordon Coates, followed by an invitation-only evening ball. The opening was attended by nearly 300 people.

By early March 1931, the Hotel Titirangi company was put into liquidation, blamed on "the present dull times." The Hotel never secured an alcohol license, becoming known as the 'pub with no beer', and struggled to attract patrons, most business being done by the restaurant and tea rooms – a nightclub was added towards the end of the decade but struggled without a license. In December 1934, Miss Sheila MacDonald, daughter of the British Prime Minister, was entertained by Auckland Branch of the Federation of University Women at the hotel. In July 1939, the then owner-occupier of the hotel, Leonard James Shrubsall (Mr Finlay) was charged and fined for deliberately selling alcohol without a license in a no-license area, and a large quantity of liquor was confiscated.