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Duke Of Wellington Hotel

Location 142 Flinders Street,, MELBOURNE VIC 3000 - Property No B4640 File Number B4640 Level State

[1/1] B4640 Duke of Wellington

Statement of Significance

What is significant? The Duke of Wellington Hotel,is a complex of four buildings. The first was designed by architect Richard Dalton and built in 1850 for Timothy Lane in what was then a quiet situation facing the open space between Flinders Street and the Yarra River. It operated as a boarding house until 1853, when Dalton was granted a licence to operate it as a hotel, and it has operated as such since then, always under the same name. It is the oldest known substantially intact continuously operating hotel in the city of Melbourne. It is one of the few pre-gold rush buildings to survive in the city of Melbourne. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was expanded in several stages. There were two separate two storey additions to the north along Russell Street, the first by1857, soon after the initial construction, and the second by 1904. In the early twentieth century an existing pair of three storey warehouses to the east in Flinders Street, built in 1884-5, were incorporated as part of the hotel.
The 1850 two storey corner building is of rendered stone, in a simple classical style, with rectangular windows without architraves, a plain parapet, and a small gabled pediment above the splayed corner, where the original entrance was located. The two extensions to the north were of rendered brick, and were designed to match the earlier building. The facade of the three storey 1880s building on Flinders Street is slightly more elaborate, with consoles supporting the ends of the parapet and architraves surrounding the segmentally arched windows. The facades of these buildings from various dates have been rendered and painted to present a uniform appearance to the street.
The buildings have been altered externally and internally since their construction, with changes in openings to the streets, and changes to the layout of the interiors. The complex forms a significant part of the Flinders Street streetscape.
How is it significant? It is of historic, social and architectural significance to the State of Victoria.
Why is it significant?It has historical and social significance as the oldest known substantially intact continuously operating hotel in the city of Melbourne. It is a rare survivor in the city of the sort of modest hotel once common in Melbourne, used largely by the less wealthy members of society, but examples of which are now largely confined to the inner suburbs and country towns. It is a complex of four buildings, added to the original 1850 two-storey corner hotel over a period of about sixty years, demonstrating the continuing success of the hotel industry, and the associated growth and evolution of hotel buildings in the city.
The Duke of Wellington Hotel has architectural significance as one of the few pre-gold rush buildings to survive in the city of Melbourne. It illustrates the simple building techniques and architectural styles associated with this early period in Victoria's history. It is a rare surviving example of a very early corner hotel, and of a complex of hotel buildings developed over a long period of time.
Classified: 05/02/2004