The claim
The verandahed Kentish has anchored the South Auckland town of Waiuku since Edward Constable, from Maidstone in Kent, built it beside the wharf in 1851 or 1852. He took out a publican's licence in January 1853, and the house says that licence has never lapsed since. Radio New Zealand's pub historians reckon it has the strongest claim to be New Zealand's oldest surviving pub. It looks across Queen Street to the Tamakae Reserve.
What the records show
Heritage New Zealand lists the hotel as a Category 2 historic place, number 535, entered in April 1983, and its entry carries the record the page shows. Edward Constable, who had bought the section nearest the Waiuku wharf when allotments there first went on sale in 1851, had put up what the entry calls a good hotel on it by early 1852, to the value of 350 pounds; in January 1853 he applied for a licence to sell alcohol from it, proposing that it be called the Kentish Hotel. The hotel's own history gives that licence a number, 47, and a date, 10 January 1853, and says the same licence has run ever since. January 1853 is the earliest record of drink sold here that we have traced, two years after the claim. Radio New Zealand, in 2018, said the Kentish has the best claim to be the country's oldest surviving pub. New Zealand's register of alcohol licences, read in its August 2026 issue, held the house on an on-licence running to June 2028, and its own website answered in October 2026 with menus, rooms and the Portside bar.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1851 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1851 | Present building | Building fabric |
| 1853 | First record of a drinking house here | Heritage New Zealand, on Edward Constable's licence application of January 1853 |
What to look for inside
- Claims NZ's longest continuously licensed hotel
- Built by pioneer settler Edward Constable
Visiting
The Kentish Hotel is in Waiuku, New Zealand. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiuku
- www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018660891/new-zealand-s-finest-historic-pubs
- www.heritage.org.nz/list-details/535/Kentish-Hotel
- thekentishhotel.co.nz/about-us/history/
- www.justice.govt.nz/tribunals/arla/register-of-licences-and-certificates/
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Oct 2026
Run this pub? There is a badge for it
Free to put on your own site, no permission needed. It shows what the pub claims and what the records support, and it changes when the data does.
How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.
