Palace Hotel is a heritage-listed pub at 227 Argent Street,

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

City of Broken Hill The City of Broken Hill is a local government area in the Far West region of New South Wales, Australia. The area contains an isolated mining city, Broken Hill, located in the outback of New South Wales and is surrounded by the Unincorporated F ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. It has also been known as the Broken Hill Coffee Palace, Mario's Hotel and Marios. It was added to the

New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...

on 2 April 1999.

History

The hotel was originally built as a

Temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...

coffee palace A coffee palace was an often large and elaborate residential hotel that did not serve alcohol, most of which were built in Australia in the late 19th century. A modest temperance hotel was opened in 1826 by activist Gerrit Smith in his home ...

, the Broken Hill Coffee Palace. It was designed by

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

architect Alfred Dunn and built in 1889 at a cost of £12,190, opening on 18 December that year. The coffee palace was not a financial success, running at a loss for its first three years, and by July 1892 media reports indicated the company and lessees were "stone broke". In that month, the lessee applied for and was granted a liquor license, at which time it was renamed the Palace Hotel. Owner Mario Celotto painted a mural of Botticelli's Venus on a ceiling. This led to many more murals being painted both by Celotto and other artists, making the hotel a tourist attraction. The 1994 Australian

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film, ''

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert ''The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'' is a 1994 Australian road comedy film written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The plot follows two drag queens, played by Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce, and a transgender woman, played by Tere ...

'', filmed many of its Broken Hill scenes in the Palace Hotel, which producer Al Clark described as "drag queen heaven". The movie describes the hotel's murals as "tack-o-rama".

Description

Heritage listing

Palace Hotel was listed on the

on 2 April 1999.

References

Notes

Bibliography

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Attribution

External links

{{commons category-inline, Palace Hotel, Broken Hill New South Wales State Heritage Register Buildings and structures in Broken Hill, New South Wales Pubs in New South Wales Articles incorporating text from the New South Wales State Heritage Register