CRAIG'S ROYAL HOTEL

Craig’s Royal Hotel, Ballarat a nineteenth-century hotel constructed in two main stages featuring banded rustication to the ground level, a cast iron portico and gas lamps at street level. The building comprises an Italianate style three-storey south wing with loggias and two towers constructed in 1862 to designs of C D Cuthbert. A three and four-storey Boom style wing to the north was constructed 1889-90 to designs of James and Piper and features an octagonal tower with a pointed roof, widow’s walk and two-storey stables. 

Craig’s Royal Hotel is of historical and architectural significance to the State of Victoria. It satisfies the following criterion for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register:
Criterion A 

Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria’s cultural history.
Criterion D 

Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural places and objects 

Craig’s Royal Hotel is historically significant for its association with Ballarat’s early phase of development following the 1850s gold rush. Constructed in two primary stages in 1862 and 1889-90, it reflects the prosperity and growth of Victoria’s regional centres during the mid to late nineteenth century. [Criterion A] 

  

Craig’s Royal Hotel is a fine example of an Italianate style building reflected in its double storey loggias, towers and detailing. It is also notable for its gas lamps and imposing north wing, which was sympathetically added yet is distinctively late Boom style. [Criterion D]