Abbotsford Hotels – Single Hotel Details

by | 29 Jul, 2021

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Hotel:Royal Hotel

Hotel ID No67
From the RH McIntyre Collection, State Library of Victoria
Title:
From the RH McIntyre Collection, State Library of Victoria
Hotel Address:

35 Spensley Street,
Clifton Hill 3068
Australia
Map It

Suburb:

Clifton Hill

Most Recent Name:

Royal Hotel (1890 - present)

Previous Name(s):

N/A

Hotel Address:

35 Spensley Street,
Clifton Hill 3068
Australia
Map It

When Built/Licenced:

1889 /1890

When Delicensed:

N/A

Status of Building:

Existing hotel

Rebuilt/Altered:

N/A

Heritage Victoria Register:

N/A

National Trust Register:

N/A

Collingwood Conservation Study 1989 & 1995:

Part C, pp. 556-557

City of Yarra Heritage Review 1998:

Volume 3, Appendix B, individually listed within precinct

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

Individually significant within HO 316

Maps:

Kearney 1855: N ; Hodgkinson 1858: N ; MMBW: Detail Plan 1276, 1904

Comments:

A decorative three-storey Italianate hotel built for John and Josephine Anderson. Tenders were invited in February 1889 and the acceptance announced in the Australasian Builder and Contractor's News 30 March, 1889. The architect was George Jobbins, and the original design as shown in the architectural drawings was to have included a corner tower, which would have made it an even more notable Clifton Hill landmark. Since the demolition of the Earl of Zetland and Mac's Hotel, this is the only remaining three-storey hotel in Collingwood.

The Andersons remained associated with the hotel for many years, while Mrs Anderson's siblings Ernest and Elizabeth Graham also served at the bar for decades. The Andersons quickly became active in the local community, especially Mr Anderson as a keen sportsman. He was elected president of the newly-formed Clifton Hill and Northcote Harriers, organised a committee in the hope of financing swimming baths on the Merri Creek, won the local pigeon shooting competition, and hosted smoke nights for the Clifton Hill and Northcote Cycling Club. Mrs Anderson died at the hotel in 1914, while Mr Anderson lived there until his death in 1938.