8 March 2025

Royal Saxon Hotel, 441 Elizabeth Street, built 1858, an early survivor near the market, built of face bricks (now painted), unusual skinny detailing, and a rough facade bluestone bit to one side. It’s the site of a proposed high rise development now up for sale with a (not bad) permit in place. Originally in 2012 it was proposed to be facaded, with the tower setback only 6m, but former Minister Matthew Guy actually rejected it ! New plans keep almost the entire 18m deep 1858 section, restore the facade (as shown in the c1950 image) with the tower setback 10m, (which involves a bit of cantilevering over the rear). Only problem is that it now includes a nice 1900s building on Franklin Street that gets facaded for a 12 storey wing with minimal setbacks. It was a backpackers for ages but I think closed for the last 10 years at least.

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