initially, some of the rooms in the building were used by the adjacent warner's hotel, built in 1901 after the previous hotel burned down. the association with warner's did not last long, as patrons were kept awake at night by the printing presses in the building. in fact, the noise environment was bad enough in warner's hotel itself, and the northern end of the hotel, which adjoined the lyttelton times building, was removed in 1917 and the gap filled with the liberty theatre (later called the savoy).