Wellington Hotel

The Wellington Hotel, situated at 175 Tuam Street, was first built in the 1860s before being replaced in 1879. Remodeled in 1936, the second building was demolished in 1971.

In May 1865, Peter Noonan was granted a general license and by July he was recorded as being the landlord of the Wellington Hotel on Tuam Street. However, by February 1866, the hotel and its outbuildings were put up for sale by auction.

In April, Joseph Fuchs, formerly of the Mechanics Hotel on Colombo Street, was granted a license for a hotel on Tuam Street. By May, he was advertising his ownership of the Wellington Hotel. Under his ownership, the hotel contained three parlours, a dining room, twelve bedrooms, and also offered four cottages.

Wishing to turn to farming, Fuchs offered the lease for the hotel for auction in May 1867. At this time the hotel was described as having a frontage of fifty feet on Tuam Street. On the ground floor were a bar, two parlours, an office, a dining room, kitchen, and three bedrooms. On the upper floor were ten bedrooms. It also had outbuildings consisting of a wash house, a skittle alley, stables and a coal house. The hotel was leased to Samuel Williams by June 1867.

However, by December 1868, Joseph Fuchs was once again the landlord of the hotel. In January 1870, he was charged with being of unsound mind after suffering an illness and was later confined in an asylum. In May, Elizabeth applied for the license so she could support her family and it was granted. Joseph Fuchs died at the hotel in June 1878.

A new hotel was designed for Elizabeth Fuchs by an architect named Jacobsen. The contractor was W. B. Scott. Construction for the new hotel started in December 1878 and was completed by September 1879.

The front entrance hall of the new hotel had a stair case to the first floor. Opposite this entrance was a room which could be divided into two. The bar of the hotel was situated in the south east corner of the building, and next to this was a parlour. There were also two private sitting rooms which overlooked the bar. When Elizabeth Fuchs reapplied for the license in May 1882 the hotel was listed as having 43 rooms.

In January 1883, Elizabeth Fuchs applied to temporarily transfer the license to her son, Frederick Joseph Fuchs. However, in November 1883, Frederick Joseph Fuchs applied to transfer the license back to Elizabeth Fuchs. Elizabeth Fuchs died in August 1887 and in September the executors of her estate transferred the license to Frederick Joseph Fuchs.

In September 1897, the license for the hotel was transferred from Fuchs to John Manning. By 1899, Manning had leased the stables behind the hotel to Albert Godfrey Saunders for the use of making soda water. However, given that both the soda water manufacturing process and the hotel used the same well, there were disagreements between the two men over the allocation of the well’s water.

Manning transferred the license to Walter Halliday in December 1899. When Halliday reapplied for his license in June 1903, he was warned that he needed to improve the way the hotel was run. The doors on to the right of way were required to be closed. The right of the way at the rear of the hotel (which led on to Manchester Street) was often a scene of crime. Halliday was also required to prevent prostitution from taking place on the premises.

In February 1906, Halliday applied to transfer the license to Gavin Loudon. In October 1912, Loudon applied to transfer the license to Thomas Henry Cahill. He remained the licensee until December 1915 when he applied to transfer the license to Daniel Joseph Kelleher.

In November 1920, Kelleher applied to transfer the license to John McCann. In June 1921, McCann applied to transfer the license to William Charles Evans. Evans applied to transfer the license to George Fox Webster in May 1923. By June 1924, following an inspection, the hotel was considered to be in an unsanitary condition. In February 1925, Webster applied to transfer the license to Richard Ingram Low. In August 1927, Low applied to transfer the license to Eric Basil Rawlings. In December 1931, the licensing committee approved the transfer of the license from Rawlings to John de Putron Manson.

In December 1933, the license was transferred from Manson to Mortimer Patrick Corliss. In June 1936, Corliss transferred the license to Edward Stanley Doyle.

Under Doyle, remodelling of the hotel building commenced in July 1936. The architect was Collins and West, and the building firm was Hammett and Sons. In November, Edward Stanley Doyle applied to transfer the license to Edward Patrick Doyle. The renovation was completed by December. As part of the renovation the entrance to the hotel was relocated westward and a verandah was added to the street front façade. The ground floor had been outfitted with a new private bar, a dining room, and bar parlours. The first floor featured a house bar and lounge, and new bathrooms, while the bedrooms on the second floor were enlarged with new bathrooms added. After this remodelling, the hotel became known as the New Wellington Hotel.

In December 1939, the license was transferred from Doyle to Charles Archibald Welsh. In December 1944, Welsh applied to transfer the license to John Alexander Joyce. In February 1952, Joyce applied to transfer the license to Cecil Henry Corliss. In September 1957, the license was transferred from Corliss to Charles Roy Hartshorne.

In April 1961, the New Wellington Hotel building had been purchased by the neighbouring department store, Millers Limited to expand their business. In September 1961, Charles Roy Hartshorne applied to transfer the license of the hotel to a site on Woolridge Road, Burnside, where a new hotel was being constructed.

Demolition of the former hotel building took place in August 1971.