Jubilee Hotel

General

Classification

State Heritage

Register status

Entered

Date entered

21 October 1992

Type

Retail, wholesale, services: Hotel/inn

Themes

3.8 Developing secondary and tertiary industries: Marketing, retailing and service industries

3.11 Developing secondary and tertiary industries: Lodging people

Architect

Gailey, Richard

Construction period

1888, Jubilee Hotel

Historical period

1870s–1890s Late 19th century

Location

Address

464-468 St Pauls Terrace, Fortitude Valley

LGA

Brisbane City Council

Coordinates

-27.45360997, 153.0336418

Significance

Criterion AThe place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history.

Its association with a major phase in the development of Fortitude Valley.

Criterion DThe place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

A fine example of an 1880s hotel of simple massing, and with classical embellishments internally and externally.

Criterion EThe place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

Its contribution to the St Pauls Terrace Streetscape.

Criterion HThe place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland’s history.

One of a group of hotels designed by architect Richard Gailey which contribute to the architectural character of Brisbane.

History

The Jubilee Hotel, a two-storeyed rendered brick building with basement was constructed for brewer William Gooley in 1887-88.

The widespread economic, population and building boom that characterised Queensland during the 1880s saw the Fortitude Valley (the Valley) grow in population and develop as a major urban centre of Brisbane, with an intensification of development of commercial and industrial premises, and stores. Many earlier timber structures were replaced by more permanent masonry buildings.

Hotels have played an important role in the historical development of Queensland. Often the first places to appear along transport routes and at fledgling settlements, hotels have catered to travellers, provided spaces for communities to drink, socialize and conduct business and meetings, and have strongly contributed to local economies. Architecturally, hotels have ranged from ephemeral makeshift shanties to more permanent and imposing buildings that have competed with civic and commercial buildings to dominate their surrounds. In urban areas, street corners have been particularly favoured sites for hotels to emphasize their presence. Over time, legislative provisions for licensed premises influenced the architecture and layout of hotels, by requiring a range of minimal standards including those related to the number of rooms, height limits of rooms, and separate entries for guests. Coupled with the domestic nature of the services provided, the requirement for licensees to reside on the premises shaped hotels' characteristic internal mix of private and public spaces.[1]

The Jubilee Hotel was designed by architect Richard Gailey who called for tenders for the erection of the building in September 1887.[2] Richard Gailey (1834-1924) was a Londonderry (Ireland) architect who settled in Brisbane in 1864. He established his own practice in 1865, and over the next 60 years built up a thriving business, working until his death in 1924. He designed Baptist churches including the Baptist Tabernacle, Brisbane [QHR 600175], former Ipswich Baptist Church, Ipswich [QHR 602573]; commercial buildings such as banks including the Westpac Bank, Normanton (former bank of NSW) [QHR 600394]; and many other Brisbane hotels including the Orient Hotel [QHR 602122], Regatta Hotel [QHR 600331] and Wickham Hotel [QHR 600213]. Many commercial buildings in Brisbane designed by Gailey during the 1880s were characterised by classical idioms and details.[3]

This was a boom time for hotel construction in the Valley, with the Gailey designed Empire (QHR 600199) and Prince Consort (QHR 600212) hotels also opening in 1888. The Jubilee differed from these other hotels in size and location. It was built to a smaller scale yet remained an imposing building because of its location in what was then a residential area.

A description of the hotel appeared in the 1888 publication Aldine's History of Queensland:

This is a new hotel, opened about the middle of 1888, and the proprietress, Mrs. Abella Atwell, has a lease of it for ten years. It is two stories high, and in appearance is equal to any hotel in the city. It is well provided with sitting rooms, a very large dining room, and also a large bar furnished with all the latest fittings. There is also a large yard and stabling, so that those with horses will find every convenience. The bed-rooms are large and airy, and upon the whole the hotel will be found very comfortable, especially to those who want to live in a healthy locality away from the noise and dust of the principal streets, yet sufficiently close to the city.[4]

 The first licensee was Isabella Atwell who ran the hotel, until 1902. Atwell leased the hotel from Gooley until it was transferred to her husband William Woods for ten years following their marriage in 1892. Other proprietors throughout the early 1900's included Angus and Mary McKinnon, and Denis McNamara. McNamara's lease was transferred to Timothy James McKinnon who in turn transferred it to James Cavill in 1923. It was then transferred back to McNamara in 1924. When William Gooley (who was chief brewer for Perkins and Co) died in 1916, ownership was transmitted to his wife Margaret Gooley who owned the property until 1926 when it was transferred to Castlemaine Perkins. In 1925 alterations to the hotel were carried out by A Low &Co. to the design of Richard Gailey (Jnr), son of the original architect. The purchase by Castlemaine Perkins at this time aligned with their practice of acquiring hotel freeholds and leases throughout Queensland. The hotel's ownership remained unchanged until 1986.[5] The ground floor was subsequently refurbished and a beer garden added at the rear.

A number of owners and lessees have been associated with the Jubilee since 1986, which continues to operate as a hotel in 2017.

Description

The Jubilee Hotel, located on the corner of Constance Street and St Pauls Terrace, is a two-storeyed rendered brick building with a basement. L-shaped in plan the building has ornate street facades featuring arched window and door openings and an ornamented parapet. Small arched openings at the base of the street elevations ventilate the basement.

Windows and doors in the ground floor street elevations have been replaced with fixed glass with the exception of double timber doors opening off Constance Street and three double hung timber windows in the public bar.

The St Pauls Terrace elevation, articulated with classical detailing, is divided into three bays. The central bay is recessed to form loggias on the ground and first floors. The main entrance is framed by an arched open top pediment. This entrance, a timber door with fanlight and sidelights, opens onto a central hallway. Much of the ground floor interior has been altered. Plaster ceilings with ornate ceiling roses and cornices remain in the hallway and lounge bar. The hallway retains its rear doors and a richly detailed set of double doors leading to the public bar. Timber stairs at the back of the hallway lead to the first floor.

The doors at the rear of the hallway open onto an L-shaped, skillion roofed, rear verandah. It has been enclosed on the ground floor by subsequent extensions and on the first floor by glass louvres. A second timber stair runs in a single flight between the two levels of verandah.

The first floor (formerly used for accommodation purposes) has undergone some alterations. The hallway has been blocked by a partition wall and bathrooms have been built at both ends of the rear verandah. A section of masonry wall has been removed to create a large room on the southern corner of the first floor.

A beer garden consisting of timber decks and skillion roofs has been added to the rear of the hotel amalgamating a previously freestanding masonry structure with a corrugated iron hip roof. Sections of the beer garden, and other modern function/dining/bar spaces, extend outside the heritage boundary into adjacent lots.

The north east elevation has a lowset modern verandah with a battened undercroft. The verandah runs along the façade, stopping just before the window located closest to St Paul’s Terrace. A timber framed skillion roof extends out to the edge of the car park and over the verandah. The roof is steel framed and clad in corrugated metal sheeting. Horizontal timber slats wrap around the enclosure. This verandah is not of cultural heritage significance.

References

[1] Maureen Lillie ‘Hotels and their role in the development of Queensland’ in Miles, Jinx, 2001, Help for Timber Pubs, Stage 1:Survey of part of south-east Queensland for the National Trust, Appendix 2, pp.1-5; Kirkby Diane, Luckins, Tanya and McConville Chris, 2010 The Australian Pub UNSW Press, Sydney, pp.2-3, p.44, see also pp.231-258 for architectural history of Australian hotels; for chronology of legislative provisions see Rechner, Judy, 2001,”Summary of Acts of Parliament that applied to Queensland hotels’ in Miles Jinx 2001, Help for Timber Pubs, Stage 1:Survey of part of south-east Queensland for the National Trust, Appendix 1, pp.1-16.
[2] Brisbane Courier, 9 September 1887, p.2.
[3] 602775 - Bank of New South Wales (former), Gympie, Queensland heritage register entry.
[4] W. Frederick Morrison, 1888, The Aldine History of Queensland, Vol.1, The Aldine Publishing Company, Sydney, p.455.
[5] Architecture and Building Journal of Queensland, 7 July, 1925, p.74; Licensing and ownership history sourced from Department of Environment and Heritage protection Site File 600211: Jubilee Hotel.

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