CANTERBURY MANSIONS

Canterbury Mansions was first known as Malone¹s Family Hotel, after which it was called the Canterbury Club Hotel. In 1920, following the Local Option Poll and the closure of all hotels in the municipalities of Box Hill and Camberwell, it became known as the Canterbury Mansions. The three storeyed brick hotel and stables were built during the suburban development boom in 1889, seven years after the railway station at Canterbury began operating in 1882. It was designed by the architect William Wolf in the popular Italianate 'boom¹ style. After the hotel was de-licensed the building operated as a guest house.

Canterbury Mansions is of historic and architectural significance to the State of Victoria

Canterbury Mansions is historically important as a rare example of a nineteenth century hotel which includes the original form of a kitchen wing and two-storey brick stable at the rear. The former hotel is historically important for its association with the 1880s expansion of the suburban railway network and commensurate land boom. It is also historically important through its association with the 1920 Local option Poll which closed all hotels in Camberwell and Box Hill. Canterbury Mansions is architecturally important in exhibiting the principal characteristics of late-nineteenth century hotel design, demonstrated by its main road and corner siting, and diagonal main entry. Canterbury Mansions is architecturally important in exhibiting the representative characteristics of the 1880s boom style.