2019:

Coming up Jackson Street in the late afternoon, the #StKildaCoffeePalace in Grey Street often looks so impressive. And nicely worn, not overly restored, ‘cos it isn’t.

It’s one of the first ‘temperance hotels’, also known as Coffee Palaces, opening in 1882. It was created by extensively rebuilding the St Kilda Assembly Room, which had opened in 1871. That was designed by Peter Mathews in a nice Renaissance Revival style, like the banks he was also designing, and built for Tom Cherry, who had made a fortune from a gold mine in Woods Point (I’m told). It was a popular venue for a while, hosting dances, performances, meetings, bazaars, roller-skating and the like, but was later described as ‘an utter failure’, and Cherry soon lost it, and his fortune. Two other owners followed but by c1878 it was in the hands of a building society.

It was then sold in 1881 to a coffee palace company, who hoped to lure customers away from licensed hotels like the George Hotel just round the corner. The rebuild was designed by #HendersonandSmart (who later joined with Joseph Reed). Opening in 1882, it had 37 rooms and a dining room ‘in Corinthian style’ (parts still visible), a billiard room and a ladies salon. The bank foreclosed on them in 1889, so clearly it couldn’t compete with the George after all, which had expanded into a huge new wing on the corner of Grey and Fitzroy Streets in 1886.

It was still called the St Kilda Coffee Palace for the next few years, and probably then became an ordinary hotel. Like most of the coffee palaces, and many St Kilda mansions, it later became more of a #boardinghouse. Since the 1990s it’s been full of #backpackers.

Note that the dates here are a bit different from the ones usually reported, but mine come from contemporary newspapers.

2022 update : it emptied early in the pandemic, various renovations seeming to happen, recently a cafe has started off the foyer, and looks like reopening as backpackers (maybe).

10 July 2022:

Just discovered that the top floor of the St Kilda Coffee Palace was added in 1888 to the building (the same year it closed) so the much talked about Baroque broken pediment was actually just broken to fit a window ! This photo (from the NGV) is c1886, when the George Hotel corner section (on the left) was just built.

25 February 2023:

I’m a fan of green generally, but not this shade on this building ! I’ve lightened it up but it’s actually sort of a dark aqua. It’s been a backpackers for ages, closed in the pandemic, now rebadged as a boutique hotel, but still really a backpackers. (Reaction on Instagram was very divided, many hated, some liked).

• Uncategorized