FORMER BLACK EAGLE HOTEL

The former Black Eagle Hotel is a two storey building in the once notorious 'Little Lon' district of Melbourne. It was built in 1850 by William Kennon as a pair of two-storey bluestone and brick dwellings, but was probably used as a hotel from the beginning, though it was not described as such until 1853. The first licensee was William Brandt who held it until 1858, when the owner, Kennon, took over the license, and held it with his son Hugh until 1882, when the hotel was purchased by the Melbourne Brewing and Malting Company. It closed down in 1908, along with many others in the city, following the Licenses Reduction laws of 1906, and after this was home to various businesses. It was a lodging house for some years and from 1918 was occupied by a Chinese cabinet maker, W H Chinn. In 1919 the property was purchased by the printer Joshua McClelland who in 1920 built a large single-storey brick printing shed (now demolished) at the rear and operated a printing business here until 1977. In 1948 the building was acquired by the Commonwealth Government. The building has been restored and is now used as a shop on the ground floor with storage and office space above. The rear facade has been incorporated into the new commercial development at 50 Lonsdale Street, part of which is built over what was the back courtyard of the hotel. The city block on which the building is located has been redeveloped, and the former hotel is now almost surrounded by high-rise buildings: the Telstra national headquarters, the Casselden Place office tower and The Urban Workshop.

The former Black Eagle Hotel is a Colonial Georgian style building of two storeys and an attic with a gabled slate roof. The Lonsdale Street exterior appears as a pair of two-storey buildings built to the footpath, with 42 Lonsdale appearing as a residence and 44 Lonsdale as a shop front with residence above, but the two have been joined into one. The walls are random coursed bluestone rubble with a thin render finish. On the street facade there is quoining around the doors and building edges and the render is ruled. The windows are double-hung sashes. The plate glass shop window is of recent origin and has Doric style timber pilasters on each side which replicate the original timber work, which had almost disappeared by the 1980s. On the western corner are remnants of early twentieth century painted signs. Internally the timber ceilings and floors have been replaced but some original, though fire-damaged, floor and ceiling joists remain. There are two original fireplaces, now closed over, on the ground floor and two open hearths on the first floor. Some early features survive in the attic, including the main roof purlins and rafters, laths of the original plastered ceilings and a section of beaded pine wall and floor. Some of the walls are lined with illustrations taken from nineteenth century newspapers and magazines. Over this was mid- to late-Victorian period wallpaper, now partly burnt off. On the lower floors are remnants of wallpaper, some fragments from the early twentieth century, and some larger sections from the period when the building was a bar although none of these are historically significant.

This site is part of the traditional land of the Wurundjeri people.

How is it significant?

The former Black Eagle Hotel is of historical and architectural significance to the state of Victoria.

Why is it significant?

The former Black Eagle Hotel is historically significant as one of the oldest surviving buildings in the City of Melbourne, and one of the few to survive from before the gold rush period. It is largely intact externally and is now a rare demonstration of the many modest buildings once common in the city, most of which have now been either demolished or significantly altered, and is of great importance in helping to understand the way of life in the city during the nineteenth century. It is significant for its association with Melbourne's Little Lon district, which in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was home to the city's poorest residents and many immigrant groups, particularly the Chinese, and was notorious for its poverty, crime and prostitution. It is significant for its association with Melbourne's Chinatown in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when many buildings in this part of Melbourne was occupied by Chinese cabinet makers.

The former Black Eagle Hotel is architecturally significant as a rare surviving example of a small 1850s residence cum hotel building in a Colonial Georgian style which has retained its scale and external form.

Group

Recreation and Entertainment

Category

Hotel