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PRINCE ALBERT HOTEL

Location 149 DOUGLAS PARADE WILLIAMSTOWN, HOBSONS BAY CITY File Number 608316 Level Registered

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Statement of Significance

What is significant?
Prince Albert Hotel, designed by Sydney Smith and Ogg for the Carlton & United Brewery Company was built in 1915-16 to replace an earlier timber structure. The hotel, in the Federation Free Style, is a two-storeyed red brick and stucco building with a slate roof. At the corner, two oriel windows with conical roofs flank an unusual circular-shaped covered balcony. The facades are decorated with tall-arched motifs, stylised cement plant motifs in the pilaster capitals, label moulds to the window arches and heavy banding of the chimney cornices.

How is it significant?
Prince Albert Hotel has architectural and historical significance to the state of Victoria.

Why is it significant?
Prince Albert Hotel is architecturally significant as a highly original and distinctive example of a late Federation Free Style hotel. The picturesque, sweeping corner with its pair of oriel windows topped by conical roofs flanking a covered balcony is unusual and gives the building a medieval flavour. This treatment is a variant on the Sydney Smith & Ogg corner tower motif found in many of their hotels including the Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood and the Kilkenny Inn, Melbourne. The exterior is a largely intact example of a Federation hotel.

The Prince Albert Hotel has architectural and historical significance for its associations with the architects Sydney Smith and Ogg who were one of the most significant architectural practices in Melbourne, particularly with the many hotels they designed for the Carlton & United Brewery Company. The hotel also has associations with notable architect and educator Robert Haddon, who worked as design consultant to Sydney Smith and Ogg. It is similar to a country hotel illustrated in Haddon's Australian Architecture called 'A hotel upon a corner site' which has a corner bar entry surmounted by an oriel tower.

The Prince Albert Hotel, built by a major brewery to replace an earlier structure, has historical significance as a reminder of the far reaching influence of the Licenses Reduction Board set up in 1906. Many hotels were closed or substantially altered or extended during this period so as to meet the requirements of the Licenses Reduction Board. Many publicans were financially unable to improve their facilities and this led to an increasing hotel ownership by major breweries.