This heritage space is on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rarangi Kōrero, the national statutory record of heritage places maintained by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (HNZPT). It is not owned by HNZPT.
Wellington’s Thistle Inn was built in 1866 and is one of the country’s oldest hotels still in business. Internationally-renowned writer Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) set her 1907 short story ‘Leves Amore’ in the building. The story features what is strongly suggested as a romantic and sexual relationship between two women who return to the Thistle after a night at the opera, the narrator opening the story with the line "I can never forget the Thistle Hotel. I can never forget that strange winter night". Katherine Mansfield had what a biographer has described as "sexually charged relationships with both men and women".
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This heritage space is open to the public during business hours.
