Hotel:Bell Inn

Suburb:

Collingwood

Hotel Address:

Perry Street, outhwest corner Palmer Street
Collingwood 3066
Australia
Map It

Hotel ID No

8

Most Recent Name:

Bell Inn (1860 - 1871)

Previous Name(s):

N/A

When Built/Licenced:

1860

When Delicensed:

1871

Status of Building:

Demolished before 1899

Rebuilt/Altered:

N/A

Heritage Victoria Register:

N/A

National Trust Register:

N/A

Collingwood Conservation Study 1989 & 1995:

N/A

City of Yarra Heritage Review 1998:

N/A

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

N/A

Maps:

Kearney 1855: N ; Hodgkinson 1858: N ; MMBW: N/A

Comments:

Brick building with 11 rooms (Rate Book 1867). Not long after opening the Bell Inn was embroiled in a public controversy, played out in the East Collingwood courthouse and the pages of The Argus.

GUARDIANS OF THE PUBLIC MORALS

To the Editor of The Argus

Sir, _ As the police force are paid by the public for performing certain duties, I think it is but right that those duties should be performed in a manner quite different from the following.

On the evening of 2nd instant a sergeant and constable (both on duty) were drinking at the bar of the Bell Inn, Perry-street, East Collingwood, for upwards of two hours. The constable was afterwards carried home drunk by his wife, and had been previously seen rolling drunk in the public street with the landlord of the hotel.

AN OBSERVER

( The Argus, 9 July 1860, p. 5)

Landlord Samuel Colls responded angrily in print the following day, denying these allegations. The case against sergeant James Burns and constable Philip Meade was heard in court in what was described by The Argus as a 'peculiar and important case' and reported in great detail the following day. The charges were dismissed. ( The Argus 25 July 1860, p. 7).