In 2010, a high-rise Novotel hotel opened on the site of the beer garden and in the process, the historical and symmetrical 1901 façade was recreated.

The fire threatened at one point to ignite the adjacent original building of the Lyttelton Times, but apart from some windows broken by the intense heat, nothing happened.

[6] The licence for the hotel was transferred to Percy Arthur Herman, an experienced proprietor from the North Island, in March 1901.

[7] Herman engaged architect Joseph Maddison to design a new building for the site, who chose a Victorian Free Classical architecture style in the palazzo genre.

The façade utilised a grand central entrance with a pediment and balustraded parapets on either side, representing typical use of classical symmetry.

[9] Herman, together with solicitor Walter Cresswell, commissioned architects Sidney and Alfred Luttrell to design what became known as the Royal Exchange, and what is these days known as the Regent Theatre, on the opposite site of Cathedral Square.

The architectural integrity of the Cathedral Square façade was kept by shifting the entrance pediment up by one floor, and by reinstating the balustraded parapets.

[14] One regular patron was Green Party co-leader Rod Donald, and after his funeral in the adjacent ChristChurch Cathedral on 10 November 2005, his wake was held in the beer garden.

[15] Warner's Hotel was under the threat of demolition from the 1960s until 2000, when property investor and developer Gordon Chamberlain, director of Crystal Imports, purchased the building from Angus Macfarlane.

At least two of those properties are likely to be demolished having suffered significant damage in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, including Warner's Hotel.