The Grand Hotel: the lavish early days of Melbourne’s Hotel Windsor

AUSTRALIA’s only surviving 19th century grand hotel was once the jewel in Melbourne’s crown. Now the Hotel Windsor is on the cusp of its most dramatic transformation yet.

• The dark past of Melbourne’s laneways
• How Melbourne streets got their names
• 9 of Melbourne’s best public artworks
• Our history: Melbourne’s oldest buildings

THE Duchess of Spring Street wasn’t always a Windsor. Long before the Hotel Windsor was named after the royal family in the 1920s, Melbourne’s grandest hotel was known as the Grand.

It was the most dazzling jewel in Melbourne’s crown as one of the world’s greatest cities in the 1880s, when gold rush riches saw our town dubbed “Marvellous Melbourne” by a visiting London journalist.

In a rapidly developing, young and modern city buoyed by riches from the goldfields and a raging land boom, the Grand was the ultimate statement of prosperity.

It’s now a rarity. In Australia, it’s the only surviving 19th century grand hotel and one of a handful left in the world.

The Windsor Hotel in 1982.

National Trust advocacy manager Felicity Watson says the Grand was the height of luxury in the day when Melbourne rivalled great cities like New York, Paris and London.

“It’s a reminder of a time when Melbourne was booming and it was one of the most important cities in the world, and the really ornate and wonderful architecture of Charles Webb has endured since the hotel was built as one of Melbourne’s most fantastic buildings,” she said.

Webb, one of Victoria’s great early architects, was hired by businessman, grain merchant and shipping magnate George Nipper to design his vision for Victorian-era luxury.

Webb designed some of Melbourne’s most beautiful and enduring buildings including Wesley College, Melbourne Grammar, the Royal Arcade and the South Melbourne Town Hall, among many others.

He also designed the Tasma Terraces in Parliament Place, East Melbourne — the National headquarters for the National Trust.

“It’s great that we have that connection,” Ms Watson says.

The hotel in 1949.

An old advertising poster for The Windsor.

Renders of the planned Windsor Hotel makeover.

The Grand was built by Thomas Cockram and Company and opened in 1884 to great acclaim at the peak of the land boom.

“It was built to be a really opulent, luxury hotel that was straight from Europe and wouldn’t have been out of place in the streets of London or Paris,” Ms Watson says.

“In 1880, Melbourne hosted the Melbourne International Exhibition at the Royal Exhibition Buildings. It was a real drawcard for people around the world.

“They were amazed and impressed at how modern Melbourne was and how fantastic its architecture was. That’s the context that the Grand was built in.”

The Grand became Melbourne’s most salubrious and fashionable hotel, but Nipper the shipper wasn’t at the helm for long. In 1886, a company headed by two prominent politicians and fervent prohibitionists took over.

James Munro, who four years later became Victoria’s 15th premier, and parliamentary colleague James Balfour took over, Munro boldly setting fire to the Grand’s liquor licence and renaming the hotel the Grand Coffee Palace.

The pair understood the pulling power of the Melbourne International Exhibition. With one eye on the upcoming Centennial Exhibition in 1888, they set to work.

The once grand old dame of Melbourne has fallen into disrepair. Picture: Mike Keating

Munro and Balfour re-engaged Webb to design the massive extension, which adjoined the north side of the original building and mirrored its famous arched facade.

“It was a temperance hotel, where they prohibited alcohol, but nonetheless they went to town developing the hotel,” Ms Watson said.

“They almost doubled the original size, added the towers that are such an iconic feature today and greatly increased the number of rooms,” Ms Watson said.

The revamped Grand Coffee Palace was a technical and an aesthetic marvel. The 200-room hotel expanded to 360 rooms. A central entrance in Spring Street was adorned with the Peace and Plenty sculpture and flanked by the towers.

The Grand Staircase, made of Stawell stone and imported tiles handmade in England, and the Grand Ballroom with its leadlight windows and clear glass domes, were stunning additions.

The Grand Coffee Palace was on a par with the world’s best grand hotels, boasting electric lighting, hot and cold running water, elevators and electric bells to summon hotel staff.

Munro was a high-flyer with interests in business, banking and land speculation, but just as he became premier in 1890, the land boom that made him so rich went bust.

Inside the Windsor Hotel. Picture: Mike Keating

The crash caused a sharp recession that, by early 1891, grew into a depression that crippled his government and sent him broke. He was declared bankrupt in 1893 with personal debts of £97,000 and an astronomical company debt of £600,000 — that’s roughly $85 million in today’s currency.

He and Balfour lost the coffee palace. New owners took over in 1897, reinstated the Grand Hotel name and obtained a liquor licence immediately.

The Grand’s location a stone’s throw from Parliament House, the Treasury building and the government offices that made Victoria tick cemented the hotel’s place in political life.

In one of The Grand’s plush suites, colonial politicians hammered out the final details of what became Australia’s Constitution in February and March 1898.

By 1920, the Grand was falling from favour as its Victorian-era trappings became unfashionable.

Melbourne Hotels Limited, chaired by World War I Australian military commander Sir John Monash, bought the Grand and again renovated.

The ballroom’s leadlight windows were replaced by clear panes, its glass domes covered and its lush colour scheme repainted in muted tones. Carpets covered the Grand Staircase’s stone and tiles.

The company bought and annexed the adjoining Old White Hart Hotel on the Bourke Street corner.

The rooftops of the Windsor Hotel. Picture: Mike Keating

The Grand Hotel name also disappeared. The Windsor name was a royal tribute, possibly introduced before the visiting Prince of Wales stayed in 1923.

More renovations in the 1940s and ‘50s further blunted the Windsor’s 1880s charm, and in 1961 the Old White Hart Hotel was demolished and replaced with the more modern annexe that remains today.

The Windsor was dowdy and dog-eared by the 1970s and was threatened with demolition until the Hamer government stepped in and bought it in 1976, leasing it to new operators.

More sensitive renovations in the 1980s and ‘90s restored many of the Windsor’s Victorian charms and its place as a favoured Melbourne destination for tourists, high tea fanciers and devotees of the memorabilia-clad Cricketers Bar.

Now, present owners the Halim Group are on the cusp of the most dramatic revamp the Windsor has ever seen — the highly controversial $350 million plan to restore the old hotel building will include a slender 27-level glass tower immediately behind it.

It will include suites costing up to $20,000 a night and will lift the Windsor from a five-star hotel to six stars.

Ms Watson says the National Trust is keen to see the heritage-listed Melbourne icon’s historic features preserved.

“It’s a really important building. It’s a building that’s much loved by Melburnians and we support its conservation,” she says.

@JDwritesalot