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Devonshire Arms Hotel, Fitzroy

Coordinates: 37°48′25″S 144°58′34″E / 37.80694°S 144.97611°E / -37.80694; 144.97611
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Devonshire Arms Hotel
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General information
AddressFitzroy Street, Fitzroy, VIC 3068, Australia
Coordinates37°48′25″S 144°58′34″E / 37.80694°S 144.97611°E / -37.80694; 144.97611
Opened1843 (1843)

The Devonshire Arms Hotel is a former pub located at 38 Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy, in the state of Victoria, Australia. It operated as a hotel from 1843 to 1920. It is Fitzroy's oldest surviving building and Melbourne's oldest known extant hotel.

The Devonshire Arms Hotel opened in 1843.[1] The hotel was erected and owned for 50 years by local entrepreneur Francis Clark.[2] Clark had arrived in Melbourne in 1840, and became manager of James Palmer's lemonade and soda factory. He opened a butcher's shop near the corner of Bourke Street and Elizabeth Street in 1845, and later another shop in Richmond. He bought speculative property around Fitzroy and Alphington, and lived a prosperous life. Although he hailed from Essex, the hotel was given the name Devonshire Arms, owing to the pre-goldrush population of the area being principally from the south-west of England.

It was one of 27 Melbourne hotels forced to close by a July 1920 meeting of the Licensing Reduction Board, formally being delicensed in December that year.[3][4] The building was raided by police in January 1921, who seized alcohol and laid charges for selling liquor without a license, but the charges were dismissed.[4][5] The building later operated as a hostel.[6]

The building is now part of St Vincent's Hospital, housing the hospital's Department of Addiction Medicine.[7]

The site is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and is included a Heritage Overlay. [1]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Former Devonshire Arms Hotel, Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) Number H0528", Victorian Heritage Database, Heritage Victoria, retrieved 13 September 2010
  2. ^ "PETTY SESSIONS". The Melbourne Courier. Vol. II, no. 150. Victoria, Australia. 3 December 1845. p. 2. Retrieved 11 August 2019 – via National Library of Australia. ,...Transfer of licenses; Mr. Joseph Cowell Passmore applied for the transfer of the license of the Devonshire Arms, now in the possession, of - Mr. Francis Clark. Granted...
  3. ^ "Hotels Delicensed". The Herald (Melbourne). No. 13, 811. Victoria, Australia. 17 June 1920. p. 4. Retrieved 22 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ a b "LICENSING CHARGE FAILS". The Herald. No. 14, 001. Victoria, Australia. 26 January 1921. p. 9. Retrieved 22 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ "RAID ON A DELICENSED HOTEL". The Age. No. 20526. Victoria, Australia. 11 January 1921. p. 6. Retrieved 22 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ "When Boots Were Imported". The Age. No. 24, 995. Victoria, Australia. 25 May 1935. p. 19. Retrieved 22 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "Addiction Medicine". St Vincent's Hospital. Retrieved 22 April 2021.