May 2026
The unfeasibly elaborate Royal Hotel on Nelson Place Williamstown was built at the height of the boom in 1890, when the Williamstown Advertiser thought the nearby piers and docks would put licensee Mr DeWardt ‘on the right road to fortune’.
His architect was T Anthoness, who didn’t do much I can find except the Tower Hotel, Heidelberg Road, and here he really went to town with the then new Queen Anne or Anglo Dutch style, an amazing pile up of red brick, squat columns, swags, an arched inset with balconette, topped by panels decorated with sunflowers and mini pediments.
There was a front bar a dining room and billiard room with skylight (still there), owners flat on the first floor, and 13 guest rooms.
I don’t think it was much of a success – in 1913 it was only making £20/week, and in 1926 was declared in a ‘shocking state’, and possibly delicensed soon after. The Heritage Victoria listing says it then became a hotel/rooming house, reported as ‘squalid’ in 1937. A post on a Western Suburbs history Facebook page drew people who stayed there in the 60s and 70s. It was sold in 2021, upgraded but still a place where you can rent just a room for $250/week.
Pic 8 Graeme Butler, 2018, B&W not sure 1970s ?
Storey of Melbourne 