There were 89 licensed hotels in Dunedin in 1865, and that year the original Sussex Hotel was added to their number, making 12 pubs in George St alone.
A simple single-storey wooden structure, its first licensee was Henry Pelling, followed by Alfred Lawrence, Daniel Bannatyne and then Thomas Oliver.
Additions at the back designed by W. T. Winchester were built in 1877, and three years later Oliver had the front portion rebuilt at a cost of more than 4000, creating the three-storey brick building seen from the street today.
The architect was Robert Forrest (c.1832-1919), whose other designs included the Excelsior, St Kilda, Green Island, and Outram hotels.
The facade was in the Renaissance Revival style, with massive pilasters running between the top two floors, and an unusual curved corner at the entrance to Blacket Lane.
There were originally more mouldings than there are now, as well as an arched pediment and finials prominent on the parapet.
The builder was John Brennan and the building was complete by June 1880.
The hotel contained a bar, two parlours, a sitting room, a large number of bedrooms, dining room, billiards room, a skittle-alley, an ''American bowling saloon'', and a rifle gallery.
There were also two shops, with dwelling rooms above them on the first floor. On the top floor was the Sussex Hall.
This had room for 200 people, and events held there in the 1880s included dinners, concerts, dances, workers' meetings, election meetings, wrestling matches and boxing classes.
The hotel was said to have had an unusual patron in its early years.
Margaret Paul, historian of the neighbouring A. & T. Inglis department store, tells the story of Antonio, a ''mansized ape'' that belonged to eccentric store owner Sandy Inglis.
The story goes that Antonio, often found dressed in an admiral's uniform, was served drinks at the hotel.
He was also allegedly involved in incidents that included his assault of a barman who had doctored his drink, an unsuccessful attempt to ride a horse (not his idea), and a scene at Port Chalmers when he threw lumps of coal at well-dressed locals returning home from church.
Sadly, he was shot after having a go at Sandy himself.
Of course legend is typically more colourful than real events, but a newspaper of 1881 records that Inglis did own a ''celebrated South African monkey 'Antonio','' and that he attracted the ''wonder of an admiring multitude of small boys'' on at least one parade.
Inglis also acquired a baboon, and both of the poor animals had been brought to Dunedin by Captain Labarde of the Pensee, and exhibited at the Benevolent Institution Carnival in 1880.
Licensees after Oliver were Thomas McGuire, Michael Fagan, John Toomey, Joseph Scott, Jessie Guinness, and John Green.
The hall was used as band and social rooms, and for some early screenings of motion picture films.
An unusual event in 1902 included J. D. Rowley's Waxworks of Celebrities, a cyclorama (panoramic images on the inside of a cylindrical platform), a Punch and Judy show, a mechanical organ, and a penny-in-the slot machine ''which purports to reveal the future and inform the inquirer what is the nature of the matrimonial alliance he or she is destined to contract''.
In 1902 a vote was passed reducing the number of hotel licences, and the following year the Sussex Hotel's days as a pub came to an end.
Its next phase was as Wardell's Building.
The grocers Wardell Bros & Co had operated a grocery store from the site since 1892, having established outlets in Dunedin and Christchurch in 1889, and opened a branch in Wellington in 1893.
For many years Wardell's was the largest store of its type in Dunedin, known for its free home delivery service, and for stocking products not available elsewhere, such as specialty cheeses.
• One of the most notorious New Zealand riots centred on Wardell's during the Great Depression.
On January 9, 1932, hundreds of unemployed workers protested in George St demanding food relief, and attempted to break into the store.
A window was broken but the crowd was unsuccessful in its attempts to get past police.
In 1935 the Dunedin business became a separate entity registered as Wardell's (Dunedin) Ltd, which leased premises from a separate Wardell family company.
In 1958 the store was converted to a self-service ''foodmarket'' and outlets later opened in South Dunedin and Kaikorai Valley.
Free deliveries ended in 1972, and in 1974 the firm was sold to Wilson Neill Ltd, which closed the George St store in June 1979.
From its earliest years the Sussex Hall was used for boxing classes, and for followers of the health and strength training movement known as Physical Culture.
The Sandow School of Physical Culture used the premises from 1901, and in 1904 was succeeded by the Otago School of School of Physical Culture, continued by J. P. Northey from 1906 to about 1953. Northey is remembered today as a pioneer of physical education in New Zealand.
Dance studios operated in the building from the 1950s through to the 1980s.
Shona Dunlop-MacTavish ran one of the first modern dance studios in New Zealand, and other instructors and groups included Laura Bain, Lily Stevens, Serge Bousloff (formerly of the Borovansky Ballet), Helen Wilson, J. S. Robinson, the Ballet School, Southern Cross Scottish Country Dancing Club, Otago Dance Centre (Glenys Kindley and Alex Gilchrist), and Meenan's School of Ballet.
The New Edinburgh Folk Club also had its first rooms in the building.
There have been many physical and practical changes to the building.
It has been lit by electricity since 1898. A bullnose veranda was added in the 1890s and replaced by a suspended one in 1933.
Major additions at the back were made in 1908 and 1936, replacing earlier structures, and an air raid shelter was built after the Japanese bombings of Pearl Harbor and Darwin in 1942.
The finials and pediment were removed before 1930 and the front of the building was replastered in utilitarian fashion in 1956, with the loss of many original mouldings. Window canopies date from the 1990s.
From 1979 a succession of appliance stores operated from the retail space formerly occupied by Wardell's.
These were Kelvinator House, Wilson Neill Appliances, and Noel Leeming.
In 1995 the Champions of Otago sports bar opened at the rear of the ground floor, and in 2006 this was replaced by Fever Club, a 1970s disco-themed bar.
Wild South and Specsavers now occupy the ground floor shops, while businesses upstairs include Starlight , Chinese Christian Books & Gifts, Travel Partners, and Alan Dove Photography.
The use of the building continues to be diverse, as it has been since 1880.
• For more from David Murray go to builtindunedin.com.
