Hotel Metropole, Ipswich
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Hotel Metropole is a heritage-listed
hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...
at 253 Brisbane Street, West Ipswich,
City of Ipswich The City of Ipswich is a local government area in Queensland, Australia, located within the southwest of the Brisbane metropolitan area, including the urban area surrounding the city of Ipswich and surrounding rural areas. Geography The Ci ...
,
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...
, Australia. It was designed by
George Brockwell Gill George Brockwell Gill (1857–1954) was an architect in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. Many of the buildings he designed are heritage-listed. Early life George Brockwell Gill was born in 1857 in the Lambert district of Surrey, England. Archit ...
and built in 1906. It was added to the
Queensland Heritage Register The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. A ...
on 21 October 1992.


History

The two storey brick hotel was constructed in 1906 to the design of prominent
Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...
architect George Brockwell Gill. In 1915 part of the surrounding property was resumed by the
Queensland Railways Department Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, it operates local and long-distance passenger services, as well as owning and maintaining approximately 6,600 kilometres of track and relate ...
. In 1925 the brewers Perkins & Co took over the lease until 1935 as part of a widespread accumulation of hotels by the company throughout Queensland. When Perkins & Co merged with Castlemaine in 1928 to form
Castlemaine Perkins Castlemaine Perkins is a brewery at 185 Milton Road, Milton, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is a wholly owned entity of the Japanese-controlled Lion company. Operations began in 1878 and continue today. Castlemaine Perkins is the home of ...
the brewery held licences for 19 freehold hotels and 50 leasehold hotels including the Hotel Metropole in Ipswich. The architect, George Brockwell Gill, designed many of the grand residences and public buildings in Ipswich from the 1880s to the 1930s. Some of his works include "Brynhyfryd" for Lewis Thomas (1889/90), Ipswich Girls' Grammar School (1890/91), St Paul's Rectory (1895), the
Ipswich Club House Ipswich Club House is a heritage-listed villa at 14 Gray Street, Ipswich, Queensland, Ipswich, City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by George Brockwell Gill and built from to 1916. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Reg ...
(1916), The Ipswich Technical College (1901), and supervision of the construction of the Walter Burley Griffin Incinerator in 1936. Gill emigrated from London and settled in Ipswich in 1886 where he commenced work as an architect for the firm of
Samuel Shenton Samuel Shenton (30 March 1903 – 2 March 1971) was an English conspiracy theorist and lecturer. In 1956, he founded the International Flat Earth Research Society, based in Dover. He lectured tirelessly on this to youth clubs, political and s ...
. Gill took over Shenton's practice in 1889 when Shenton retired. Gill had been elected Associate of the
Queensland Institute of Architects The Queensland Institute of Architects was a professional society for architects in Queensland, Australia. It operated from 1888 until 1930, when it became a chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects. History The Queensland Institute of ...
in 1904 and Fellow by 1913. He was its Vice-President in 1914-16 and President in 1918-19. The building has been used as hotel since opening in 1906 and continues as a hotel and nightclub today. In 1997, it was renamed The Harp of Erin, and later as the Silver Fern, but reverted to the Hotel Metropole name by the mid-2000s. In 2015, it contains the Waghorn gastropub and Club Metro nightclub, but retains the overall Hotel Metropole branding.


Description

The Hotel Metropole is a substantial two storeyed hotel with basement located on the north-eastern corner of Brisbane and Waghorn Streets at Ipswich. Built in 1906, the hotel is constructed of tuck pointed red brickwork of
flemish bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by siz ...
heavily decorated with contrasting coloured brickwork and cement rendered dressings. The skyline is highlighted with decorative
gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
s to the Brisbane Street parapet which conceals a hipped corrugated iron roof behind. The principal facade to Brisbane Street is symmetrically composed around central
loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...
to ground and first floor. The main entrance to the building is via the ground floor loggia which is heavily decorated with painted cement rendered arches,
columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression membe ...
and balusters and secured with cast iron
grille Grill or grille may refer to: Food * Barbecue grill, a device or surface used for cooking food, usually fuelled by gas or charcoal, or the part of a cooker that performs this function * Flattop grill, a cooking device often used in restaurants, ...
s. Tessellated tiles line the floor. Additional arched entrances to bar areas are located either side of the loggia with a further entrance located off Waghorn street which currently opens into a more recently constructed beer garden that is fenced off from street access. The ground floor verandah to Brisbane and Waghorn Street elevations has timber posts, a cast iron valance and a recently replaced steel roof structure with curved Colorbond roof sheeting and slotted ogee guttering. The first floor loggia has stilted arches of contrasting brickwork with columns, pilasters,
keystones A keystone (or capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allo ...
and other cement rendered elements. The remainder of the facade is relieved with contrasting cement rendered dressings, sills, string courses, pilasters, entablature and
pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...
. The Waghorn Street facade includes a first floor verandah with a balustrade and valance in a sunflower pattern which was common in Victoria on boom era houses and hotels and was registered as pattern no:VIC 444 by J Cochrane & G Scott 17 November 1887. At the rear, the "back of house" functions are expressed on the exterior of the building to Waghorn Street by a step in the parapet and the change in window treatment. A timber framed cantilevered verandah with cast iron balustrade of a less elaborate detail is located on the rear elevation and overlooks the railway line. The exterior joinery is generally intact and comprises double hung windows with four light upper sashes to segmental arched windows, multi-paned fanlights with circular lights to other arched openings and four panel doors. The main entrance to the building opens off the loggia and provides access to bars either side and to the entrance to the stair hall leading to the accommodation on the first floor. The floor is lined with later parquetry with rendered walls and a
pressed metal ceiling A tin ceiling is an architectural element, consisting of a ceiling finished with plates of tin with designs pressed into them, that was very popular in Victorian buildings in North America in the late 19th and early 20th century. They were als ...
. The entrance to the main stair hall has a fixed arched fanlight above the door with the words "Hotel Metropole 1906" etched into it. The stair hall also has a pressed metal and contains a substantial and elaborately detailed cedar stair. An arched window with decorative leadlight. The main bar area to the west of the hall has been substantially altered with the removal of several walls to form one main bar area on the principal corner of the building. Remnant walls have been retained as
lintels A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of ...
to allow original plaster ceilings,
cornices In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
and ceiling roses to survive. A marble fireplace is located on the northern wall of the main bar and the floors are of timber covered with later linings. The bar area to the east of the hall has been heavily refurbished and little of its early interior is evident. A kitchen, secondary stair and recently refurbished toilet facilities are housed at the rear of the building. The secondary stair provides access to the upper floor as well as to the basement and service entrance. The basement has a low floor to ceiling height and is used for storage. The upper floor of the hotel generally retains its early layout and contains accommodation rooms and a common room on the western side of the stair hall. The eastern side has been altered and fitted out as a nightclub. The rear of the building houses single rooms and the bathrooms with internal timber partition walls lined with v jointed tongue and groove boards, timber floors and timber ceilings. Much of the interior joinery on both levels is intact and generally appears to be cedar.


Heritage listing

Hotel Metropole was listed on the
Queensland Heritage Register The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. A ...
on 21 October 1992 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. Erected in 1906, the Hotel Metropole demonstrates a period of renewed building activity in Ipswich around the turn of the 20th century. It was one of many substantial public brick buildings constructed during this period and the striking nature of the building also reflects the importance of the local hotel in communities of the era. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. The Hotel Metropole is a good example of a reasonably intact
Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...
hotel displaying fine detailing evidence of its original design throughout the building. The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. For its architectural and aesthetic value and as a landmark within the city which contributes to the Brisbane Street streetscape and to the townscape. The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons. The Hotel Metropole has special association with the local community of Ipswich as a place of social activity since its opening in 1906. The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history. It is also important as a prominent and characteristic example of the work of George Brockwell Gill, the Ipswich architect responsible for numerous significant domestic and civic buildings in the city.


References


Attribution


External links

* {{official website, http://waghornipswich.weebly.com/ Queensland Heritage Register West Ipswich, Queensland Hotels in Queensland Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register