Oriental Hotel (Former)

The former Oriental or Builders Arms Hotel at Nelson Place, Williamstown is of local historic and aesthetic significance to the City of Hobsons Bay.

Historically, the hotel is significant as one of a number along Nelson Place in proximity to the waterfront, which demonstrates their important role in the early development of the town and the importance of Nelson Place as the commercial heart of Williamstown during the mid to late nineteenth century. It also illustrates how hotels were upgraded following changes to licensing laws during the late nineteenth century, which required hotels to have a certain number of rooms of minimum dimensions to be licensed. (AHC criteria A4 and D2)

Aesthetically, although altered, it is significant as a rare example of a three-storey corner hotel that relates to other similarly sited nineteenth century hotels in the Nelson Place and Government Survey Heritage Precincts. (AHC criteria B2 and E1)

Group

Commercial

Category

Hotel