Citation report - Victoria's Planning Schemes

City of Port Phillip Heritage Review
Identifier
Formerly
Address
Significance
Description
George Hotel
Terminus Hotel
Constructed 1889, 1925
Amendment C 29
Comment
Cnr. Fitzroy St and Grey Street
ST. KILDA
(Mapped as a Significant heritage property.)
Canterbury Rd
Category Commercial: residential
Designer See DESCRIPTION
The George Hotel, situated at the terminus of the St Kilda railway line, is historically important as an early
landmark in this fashionable seaside resort. It stands on a site which sported a hotel from early days of St
Kilda. The Victorian building is typical of the hotels erected during the boom years in Melbourne, and is a
reasonably intact example.
Primary Source
Nigel Lewis and Associates, St. Kilda Conservation Study, 1982
Other Studies
Fitzroy St
Grey St
Heritage Precinct Overlay None
Heritage Overlay(s) HO127
Dalgety St
Citation No:
Originally the Terminus Hotel stood on this site although this was renamed in 1867 by the new proprietor,
Charles Forster after the George Hotel, Ballarat. Extensions and alterations to the hotel occurred with one
extensive addition being designed by Robert Rusby Cowl in 1873 for the proprietor Fredrick Wimpole (who
owned the hotel from 1870 to well into the next century). The hotel as it exists today comprises two buildings
which reflect two styles; one being erected on the corner by 1889 and the other adjoining in Fitzroy Street in
1925. The four storey Victorian building originally of two hundred and fifty rooms, was designed by Harry B.
Gibbs and features a curved corner tower and recessed balconies on both elevations. Arched openings
dominate the composition with applied decoration including Corinthian pilasters and bosses. The 1925 section
which abuts the earlier one is an austere building of five storeys which employs vertical oriel window bays to
relieve the facade. Strips of rectangular windows maintain the horizontal line of the Victorian building and the
parapet is balustraded in a similar manner to the adjoining building.
Intactness
The existing building is reasonably intact and the extensive 1925 addition does not distract greatly from the
earlier building. A mansard roof to the corner tower shown in an early illustration is no longer extant.
94