Abbotsford Hotels – Single Hotel Details

by | 27 Nov, 2015

Return to Abbotsford Hotel Listing

Hotel:Yarra Hotel

Hotel ID No93
Hotel Address:

293-297 Johnston Street
Abbotsford 3067
Australia
Map It

Suburb:

Abbotsford

Most Recent Name:

Yarra Hotel (c.1864 to present)

Previous Name(s):

Mackay's Hotel, 1855 - pre 1864 (sometimes referred to as Mackay's Family Hotel or MacKay's Inn)

Hotel Address:

293-297 Johnston Street
Abbotsford 3067
Australia
Map It

When Built/Licenced:

1855

When Delicensed:

N/A

Status of Building:

Existing hotel

Rebuilt/Altered:

1880s?

Heritage Victoria Register:

N/A

National Trust Register:

N/A

Collingwood Conservation Study 1989 & 1995:

Part A, pp. 286-288

City of Yarra Heritage Review 1998:

Volume 2, Building Citations, Part 1, pp. 199-200

City of Yarra Review of Heritage Overlay Areas, 2007 & Heritage Database:

HO21. Individually significant.

Maps:

Kearney 1855: N ; Hodgkinson 1858: Y ; MMBW: Detail Plan 1283, 1901

History:

The first hotel on this site was a brick building, and took its name from the original proprietor Mrs Margaret Mackay. It was replaced later in the nineteenth century by the existing ornate late Victorian hotel in the mannerist style. Victoria has a number of Italianate hotels built around this period, but the Yarra is an outstanding example due to the scale of its distinctive pediment and rendered ornamentation, which remain largely intact, although the painting of the render work is to be deplored. It stands in a section of Johnston Street that nowadays has a limited number of interesting buildings and a steady stream of traffic, and it might be easy to miss this architectural delight unless you cross to the opposite footpath and take a good look upwards.