Hotel St George, Wellington: Where the Beatles Stayed in 1964

The Beatles stayed at the Hotel St George, on the corner of Willis and Boulcott streets in central Wellington, when their New Zealand tour began on 21 June 1964. They greeted fans from its third-floor balcony. The 1930 Art Deco building still stands as long-stay accommodation, with no Beatles plaque.

Arrival on 21 June 1964

The Beatles' only visit to New Zealand began at Rongotai airport on a Sunday afternoon, with about 7,000 fans at the fence. After a Maori welcome they rode round the airfield on the back of a Holden ute, then drove into town to the St George, the capital's leading hotel.

The manager, Frank Drewitt, had spent months planning the arrival with the promoter Kerridge-Odeon, the traffic department and the police. Twenty officers stood at the front door so the crowd would watch it. Drewitt himself waited at the side bottle store with about a dozen more, and when a sergeant on the footpath gave a signal, he unlocked the door and the band ran in.

Up to the balcony

Staff took the four straight to the third-floor balcony at the front of the building. By AudioCulture's account the crowd in the intersection had grown to about 4,000 as fans arrived from the airport. Once the Beatles went back inside, an official with a loud-hailer announced that they would not come out again. Fans kept trying anyway: some climbed fire escapes from the verandah, and police used dogs to clear the verandahs.

The band slept in two suites on the sixth floor. Paul McCartney wanted a guitar that first night, as the band's instruments were locked in the Town Hall. Radio man Ken Avery borrowed a cheap one from a neighbour's schoolgirl daughter in Karori, and it came back signed. The Wellington concerts, at the Town Hall, began at 6pm on Monday 22 June.

The building since

William Prouse designed the St George in Art Deco style, and it was built in 1929-30 for almost £100,000. It has a Category 2 listing with Heritage New Zealand. Wellington Polytechnic reopened it as a student hostel in 1995; later owners have run it as long-stay rooms, now under the name St George Accommodation.

In October 2012 the Bootleg Beatles played on the same balcony to re-enact the 1964 arrival.

Seeing it today

The building has no Beatles plaque, and none appears in heritage, council or press records. The owner's website does retell the 1964 story. The rooms are private, so the view is from the street: stand at the Willis and Boulcott corner and look up at the front facade for the balcony above the verandah.

Beatles hotels on the Australian leg of the same tour include the Southern Cross Hotel site in Melbourne and the Adelaide Town Hall balcony.