Bridge Hotel

The Bridge Hotel at the corner of Bridge and Water streets is a two-storey face brick building with a chamfered corner. It features a painted rendered parapet that extends along the Bridge Street elevation and returns to Water Street. There has been a hotel on this site since 1858. The facade design and Edwardian form and detailing of the parapet suggest an early twentieth century (c. 1913) redevelopment or a facade remodelling incorporating the earlier Victorian building. The rear addition, albeit incorporating early fabric, has been significantly remodelled and extended, and is not of heritage significance.

The Bridge Hotel is of local historical, social and aesthetic (architectural) significance.

The Bridge Hotel at the corner of Bridge and Water streets is of local historical significance as a hotel of long standing in Bendigo; there has been a hotel on the site since 1858, providing a place to socialise and a venue for public and political meetings.18 The existing building appears to be a redevelopment or remodelling of the earlier building, with the change possible coinciding with the acquisition of the site by the adjacent Cohn Brothers Victoria Brewery in 1913.

The building is also of local aesthetic/architectural significance as a representative example of a two-storey corner hotel of a type found throughout Victoria's metropolitan areas from the 1850s, with its corner siting, massing and chamfered corner entry bay. Its Edwardian-era detailing, including the parapet form and detailing, are typical of hotels remodelled or developed in that period. The prominent and flamboyant parapet and more restrained render detailing to the facade are distinctive and add interest to the design.

While not investigated as part of this assessment, as for any hotel of long-standing the Bridge Hotel is likely to be of social value and a focus of some attachment in the local community.