Royal Hotel, 1259 Sandgate Road, Nundah, Queensland
The Royal Hotel, Nundah, has been a longstanding part of the life of Nundah.
It was designed by architect George William Campbell Wilson and constructed around 1888. George Wilson designed a number of notable hotels, including the Brunswick Hotel, New Farm, the Crown Hotel, Lutwyche, and the Waterloo Bay Hotel, Wynnum.
The Royal Hotel was built at a time when Nundah was developing from a mission outpost to a township. The original two storey hotel building was characteristic of hotel buildings constructed as part of the building boom of the 1880s.
The hotel, which retains the original core of the building constructed on this site, remains a significant reminder of the earliest buildings in this settlement town.
The Royal Hotel was built on land originally owned by George Bridges who sold the land in 1873. The site had several owners until Mr John Bale subdivided the property for sale in 1882.
The hotel was constructed during the height of the building boom sweeping Australia in the 1880s. The railway had arrived in Nundah in the early 1880s which enlivened the town’s emerging commercial centre.
John North was the hotel’s first licensee. North had bought six allotments in 1885 and in 1887 built the hotel.
A Heritage study by Brisbane Council noted that in November 1888 North leased the hotel to James Perkins who remained the lessee until 1894.
In that year North transferred the property to Thomas Proe who in turn the following year transferred the property to Perkins and Co. where it remained under their ownership until it was transferred into the ownership of Queensland brewery Castlemaine Perkins in August 1929. It remained under their ownership until the mid 1980s.
The Brisbane Council Heritage study notes that with the Prince of Wales Hotel and the Kedron Brook Hotel, later renamed the Nundah Arms, already established in Nundah since the 1860s, the construction of the Royal Mail indicated that Nundah and its surrounds were grown to the extent that it could support three hotels.
Like all hotels in settlement towns, The Royal Mail played a pivotal role in the growing Nundah township, providing community connection, entertainment and support when things were tough.
It was a place to meet for official business and local celebrations. In February 1900 it was part of an extraordinary patriotic demonstration supporting local men who had enlisted to fight in the Boer War.
The mood of the town and the role of The Royal Hotel was well captured in an article in The Telegraph of Brisbane on 24 February 1900 noted: “Never before in the history of Nundah has there been such a demonstration as last evening, when a gathering of considerably over 2,000 persons assembled to take part in and witness a patriotic torchlight procession. The small township was splendidly decorated with flags and streamers stretching across the streets from one building to another.
“From the Royal Hotel to Mr McKenzie’s boot shop was stretched a large banner bearing the motto ‘Hit hard and die hard’ and on the other side ‘Go where glory waits you’.”
In 1936 the hotel was taken over by Jerry Maloney. A report in The Catholic Advocate on 12 November 1936 noted: “It will not be long before Jerry and Mrs Maloney have won the good graces of the people of Nundah and its surrounding districts. Indeed, members of sporting bodies will find in Jerry Maloney a devotee to all forms of sport.”
It went on to say the Royal Hotel, Nundah, would make sporting bodies feel “quite at home”.
The Nundah Hotel still ensures that everybody feels quite at home.