Carriers' Arms Hotel

The former Carriers’ Arms Hotel and stables are of historical and aesthetic significance and rarity value to the City of Ballarat.

The former Carriers’ Arms Hotel and stables are of historical and aesthetic significance and rarity value to the City of Ballarat.

Historically, the former hotel and its stables illustrates the early commercial activity in the north part of Ballarat’s business district, and its form and fortunes were intrinsically entwined with the market reserve across from it. The hotel first opened in 1857 under the name of the Market Square Hotel. When the Ballarat Haymarket was established on the reserve in 1863, owner Thomas Whateley changed its name to the Carriers’ Arms Hotel. This name referred to the farmers who carted their hay to the market for sale, and stables were provided for the horses of this out-of-town clientele. (Criterion A)

The highly intact built-form illustrates the hotel uses, including changes over the twentieth century. The three front entries illustrate the separation of the sexes as well as the separation of bar and accommodation functions. The rear kitchen illustrates typical nineteenth-century floor plans which preferred detached kitchens both to prevent fires and keep odours out of the main building. Originally detached, the verandah between the kitchen and dining room survives beneath the current roof. Inside, the building retains most of its original floor plan, with changes to a few bedrooms in the 1950s, and retains timber-lined ceilings, simple timber mantlepieces, doors, and a fine staircase with a skylight. (Criterion A)

The painted advertising signage for ‘Barley Sheaf Ales & Stout’ next to the front door of the hotel bears witness to the brewery once located next door. It was amalgamated with others in 1895 to form the Ballarat Brewing Company, which then took over the lease of a number of Ballarat hotels, including the Carriers’ Arms Hotel in 1901. The later painted signage on the north wall of the hotel – providing its name and ‘Tiger Beer’, later overpainted with ‘Melbourne Bitter’ – provides information to interested passers-by of the building’s original use. (Criterion A)

Aesthetically (architecturally), the 1890 hotel building illustrates the trend in Ballarat for hotels established in the 1850s to be rebuilt in the decade around 1890-1900. It is distinguished by its simplified Second Empire-style form, expressed by the mansard-roof tower, which adds a landmark element and complexity to the building’s massing. The bichromatic brickwork of the front façade is of high quality and features a range of moulded cream and red bricks as well as etched and flashed glass lights around the main entrance door. Unusually, it retains both original front and rear (kitchen) verandahs, clearly demonstrating the Victorian-era building hierarchy. While the front verandah has cast-iron Corinthian posts and is embellished with multiple patterns of cast-iron frieze, brackets and balustrade, the rear verandah is entirely of timber, with chamfered posts with timber capitals. (Criterion E)

The c1866-69 brick stables are a rare surviving example of a typical mid-nineteenth-century commercial stables. It retains most of its original form comprising a hipped roof, handmade brick walls, early or original pedestrian and barn doors, and an internal hayloft. The stables illustrate the key use of the Carriers’ Arms Hotel: as the place farmers would stay when delivering loads of produce or hay to the market across the road. Unlike travelling salesmen, for example, this clientele had a high need for stabling. The conversion of the southern part to garages diminishes its intactness, but also illustrates the ongoing adaptation of the hotel and its facilities to changing requirements in the twentieth century. (Criteria B & A)