17 February 2025
The very oriental-looking Orient Hotel once stood on the corner of Bourke & Swanston Streets, though not for very long. Not to be confused with the Oriental Hotel in Collins Street, it was first built in 1860 in a pretty restrained style, then the top two floors were demolished and rebuilt in 1904 in an exotic Moorish style befitting the name – plenty of keyhole arched windows, and a cute onion dome on the corner. They also kept the elaborate verandah, added maybe 1880s.
It was one of the very few examples of the Moorish/Moghul style ever built in Melbourne, the most famous being Luna Park, 1912, and the 1890s facade of the Eastern Arcade further up Bourke was also pretty good (demolished 2008). The hotel was bought by the growing Foy & Gibson stores in 1926, converted into a shop about 1928, and along with many adjacent properties demolished to make way for their huge city store, which opened in 1936. It’s still there but with added floors and altered lower levels not much left really.
Old pics all @library_vic, first one c1910, then 1928, then c1900, 1936.
Storey of Melbourne 