Plans for hotel refurb will preserve a piece of history
WHILE the future of the Metropole Hotel looks bright under the ownership of Kosta and Jasmine Theodosis, their plans to preserve the hotel will ensure a key piece of Toowoomba’s history is retained.
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WHILE the future of the Metropole Hotel looks bright under the ownership of Kosta and Jasmine Theodosis, their plans to preserve the hotel will ensure a key piece of Toowoomba's history is retained.
The site on the corner of Ruthven and Bowen St has been the home of various pubs since at least 1864.
According to a heritage report on the hotel by Stephanie Keays, Degans Public House, named for its owner Peter Degan, operated until 1869-70 when licensee T Stephens renamed it the Bowen Hotel.
It wasn't until 1894 that Thomas Walsh changed the name to the Hotel Metropole.
Despite briefly being known as the Prince of Wales, it quickly reverted back to the Hotel Metropole, and finally in 1923 became known - as it is today - as the Metropole Hotel.
The two-storey building that stands today is the same one that was built by Thomas Walsh in 1899 - albeit with some major alterations.
Designed by renowned architects Marks and Sons and constructed by builder H Andrew, the original Metropole Hotel was as it appears in the above picture - a two-storey brick hotel with open verandas, lacework, brackets, and decorative posts.
Between the 1950s and 1980s, the building underwent substantial change and renovation, including the removal of its verandas and posts and chimneys, and the erection of its current facade.
In 2017 the Toowoomba Sports Club successfully applied to demolish the hotel.
Those plans were later abandoned.
In March this year the mortgagee of the hotel placed the site on the market.