Hotel closes down
THE Fiji Times published a report on how the former owner of the Garrick, Vince Costello, closed down this well-known hotel back on October 2, 1970.
It seemed as if the big doors of the main entrance to the Garrick Hotel, Suva, knew they were being closed for the last time.
The hinges creaked and groaned as the hotel’s proprietor, Mr Costello, tugged on them at 9 o’clock on a Wednesday night.
Mr Costello was closing up, but this time with a difference.
It was for the last time. He pulled on the doors again and finally they budged.
There was an air of sadness about his as he held the doors slightly open before locking them.
Mr Costello peered into the semi-darkness and saw the dim outline of the familiar staircase leading from the ground floor to the rooms and lounge bars upstairs.
The years came flooding back as he closed and locked the big doors.
Mr Costello had trudged up those stairs many times since 1933 when his brother, the late Dr Dan Costello, owned the hotel.
At first he worked for Dan as a barman for five years and then he and another brother, Jim Costello, took over ownership in 1937.
When Jim returned to Australia in 1947, Mr Costello bought his share and became the sole proprietor.
There were the good times and the hard times as Mr Costello summed it up:
“They were the best years of my life.
“I have never regretted coming to Fiji.
“The only regret I have is that I am leaving the Garrick,” he said.
Mr Costello was a boilermaker by trade and came to Fiji in 1930 from Maryborough, Queensland to work for the Marlows under Mr L Genge.
During this time, his brother Dan was the owner of the Garrick, having taken ownership from Mrs Evetts in 1926.
“We were regulars of course at the Garrick which was then the Pier Hotel,” he said.
During this time the Pier employed two Australian barmaids.
However, the law was changed to prohibit women from serving in hotel bars.
The change in the law changed Mr Costello’s career also. He then resigned from his boilermaker job and became a barman at the Pier.
Mr Costello’s other brother, Jim, was also in Suva at the time as he worked at Leylands’s butchery which was owned by their brother Dan.
“Brother Dan decided to sell up in 1937 and we bought him out,” Mr Costello said.
The name of the hotel was changed from Pier to the Garrick.
Mr Costello’s life as a hotelier then continued at the Hotel Suva in Waimanu Rd, which he owned in partnership with former Club Hotel manager Norm MacDonald.
The only regret I have is that I am leaving the Garrick – Vince Costello