Individual Hotel Details

Abbotsford Street, southwest corner of Hunter Street
Abbotsford 3067
Australia
Map It

89

Village Belle Hotel (1868 - 1918)

N/A

1868

1918

Residence

c.1877

N/A

N/A

Part A, pp. 10-12

Volume 3, Appendix B, individually listed under precinct

Individually significant within HO 313

Kearney 1855: N ; Hodgkinson 1858: N ; MMBW: Detail plan 1284, 1901

By 1864 George Young, a grocer, owned and operated a wood shop on this site. By 1868 Young was the licensee of the Village Belle, a wooden hotel with six rooms, and also continued to operate his grocery store until Edwin Dobbs purchased the property in 1869. Dobbs then left to open a new hotel - The Retreat in nearby Nicholson Street. Around 1874 Jonathan Falkingham, a publican and grocer, became owner/occupant. (Licensing records, Rate Book). In March 1877 a fire gutted most of the rooms and the roof was burnt off. The Argus described the building as a one storey wooden building containing nine rooms. It must have been after this that the current building was constructed.

With its simple corner design and rare remaining shop verandah, the current building is an evocative and charming element in the local streetscape. The corner section is two-storeyed. The street elevations are stuccoed with ashlar markings, simple cornice line and plain string course at first floor level. Some alterations to door and window openings can be seen by comparing the old and current photo.

The single storey shop to Abbotsford Street retains its original arcaded window and timber posted verandah; the parapet has been altered.