Hotel:Sir Robert Peel Hotel

Hotel ID No73
Hotel Address:

125 Wellington Street
Collingwood 3066
Australia
Map It

Suburb:

Collingwood

Most Recent Name:

Sir Robert Peel Hotel (1858 to present)

Previous Name(s):

N/A

When Built/Licenced:

1857/58

When Delicensed:

N/A

Status of Building:

Existing hotel

Rebuilt/Altered:

1911-12, 1926, and 1967

Heritage Victoria Register:

N/A

National Trust Register:

N/A

Collingwood Conservation Study 1989 & 1995:

Part C, pp. 688, 693

City of Yarra Heritage Review 1998:

Volume 2, Building Citations, Part II, pp. 407-408

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

HO 142, individually significant

Maps:

Kearney 1855: N ; Hodgkinson 1858: Y ; MMBW: Detail Plan 1208, 1899

Comments:

The original brick hotel was built in 1857. In 1858 the first licensee was John Thomas Wood, proprietor of the Yorkshire Brewery on the opposite side of Wellington Street. It must have been a substantial building, because its gross annual value as listed in the 1864 Collingwood municipal rate book was 250 pounds, equal to the Grace Darling and Mac's Hotel in Smith Street. Carlton Brewery bought the hotel in 1887; around 1911 it was demolished and replaced by the existing building, designed by Sydney Smith & Ogg. Some alterations were made in 1926, while extensive renovations took place in 1967, at which time the facade was painted. Some of the Peel Street windows have been filled in. It remains a good example of the Edwardian free classical revival style, but the details are unfortunately obscured by the external paintwork.

The name (and that of Peel Street) refers to the British statesman (Home Secretary 1822-1827, Prime Minister 1834-5 and 1841-46) who helped create the modern concept of the police force, giving rise to the terms 'bobbies' in England and 'peelers' in Ireland. He has given his name to at least a dozen pubs in the United Kingdom.