History of the Grand Pacific Hotel – Suva I’ve written about the newest incarnation of the Grand Pacific Hotel (GPH), which is rising once again like a Phoenix on Suva’s waterfront. For nearly two decades as the esteemed Norwegian anthropologist Solrun Williksen described The Grand Pacific Hotel as “sinking into the muddy shores. Any passer by...
Part Four This is the Fourth in a series of blogs by Norwegian anthropologist Solrun Williksen. These next few excerpts cover the glorious history of the GPH Fiji Times twice to find people who had worked at the Grand Pacific or who were in any way related to the building and could tell a story about it, but only two persons reacted. The people I found who could...
Part Three This is the third is in a series of blogs by Norwegian anthropologist Solrun Williksen. These next few excerpts cover the glorious history of the GPH It was not true as stated by Finance Minister Jim Ah Koy in 1998 that the Grand Pacific had been “an eyesore for the last 20 years”. But it was true that the hotel, for all its dignity and...
Part Two This is the second part in a series of blogs by Norwegian anthropologist Solrun Williksen. These next few excerpts cover the glorious history of the GPH The Grand Pacific Hotel was built in 1914 and was hailed as a masterpiece of colonial architecture and a seat of splendid receptions, balls and dinners. It had 60 rooms and a hall with huge cane chairs...
