The Cobbler Hotel

Wellington couple Jarrod Strong and Mady Duxfield-Strong converted a run-down section of the historic Hannah's shoe factory into a 12-room boutique hotel in mid-2023, the building's first-ever life as accommodation. The Cobbler leans into its industrial past with exposed brick, dark interiors and full kitchens in every unit.

The place

The Cobbler occupies a 1923 building in Hannah's Laneway, Te Aro — part of the former R. Hannah & Co. shoe-manufacturing complex on Leeds and Eva Streets, in the heart of Wellington's laneway dining and creative quarter.

The concept

Local couple Jarrod Strong and Mady Duxfield-Strong bought a dilapidated block of student flats occupying a section of the historic Hannah's shoe factory and stripped it back to its bones, exposing original brick and concrete and opening it in mid-2023 as a 12-key boutique hotel — the building's first life as a hotel. It is a genuinely small operation: one-bedroom studios, two-bedroom apartments and a single loft suite called The Library, each fitted with a full kitchen. The design leans hard into the site's industrial past — dark, moody interiors offset by warm lighting and framed illustrations by artist Josh Currie — rather than smoothing the factory character into something generic. The Cobbler is the sister project to Eva's Garage next door, the same couple's café, barbershop, florist and gift shop, and the pair have positioned the hotel as an anchor of their own micro-revival of the laneway.

Dining & wellness

There is no in-house restaurant or room service; every unit has a full kitchen instead. The adjoining Eva's Garage, run by the same owners, serves as a café by day, and the laneway itself hosts nearby food options including Mr Go's and the Gorilla Burger truck.