So, here is the Royal Park Hotel in North Melbourne, which sadly, has a very similar story that almost mirrors the one of the Greyhound Hotel in St Kilda that we posted on Instagram a few months back. It was demolished around the same time in 2016, and like the Greyhound Hotel, it still sits there 7 years later with what seems to be little more than a fenced off yard with site sheds and heavy machinery stored on it.
.
Reading up on a few articles about it, the council did object to its demolition on heritage grounds, but the developer ultimately took the fight to VCAT, and you’ll see by the last photos how that ended up and who won in the end. There was a decent amount of media to try and save this pub, and there was really good public support, but ultimately it wasn’t enough to save it. VCAT overturned the councils objection and that was that. It made it onto the media pages a second time around when a couple of the facade brick walls collapsed onto the footpath early one morning, though nobody was injured.
.
*These are some of the archival photos I worked from. We credit all pics the best we can if we have/ know the source, but we do get sent a lot of pics without any information supplied, so if we don’t credit a particular photo, and anybody knows the original source, please let us know and we'll amend any errors.
Pic 2: Melbourne Streets Pic 3: Flickr
Pic 4: Melbourne Streets Pic 5: Flickr
Pic 6: Pinterest Pic 7: ABC - Demolition
Pic 8: ABC - Demolition Pic 9: Own - Current Day
Harper & Charlie's art print of the Royal Park Hotel in North Melbourne can be purchased here
© Harper and Charlie 2023. All rights reserved.