Regatta Hotel 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 543

Coronation Drive Coronation Drive, popularly known as Coro Drive, is a road in Brisbane, Queensland, which connects the Central Business District to the suburb of Toowong. It follows the Brisbane River from the Riverside Expressway, through the suburbs of Mil ...

on the corner of Sylvan Road,

Toowong Toowong ( ) is a riverside Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Toowong had a population of 12,556 people with a median weekly household income of $1,927. Geography Toowong is ...

City of Brisbane The City of Brisbane is a local government area (LGA) which comprises the inner portion of Greater Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. Its governing body is the Brisbane City Council. The LGAs in the other mainland state capitals ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. It faces the

Toowong Reach The Brisbane River (Turrbal language, Turrbal: ) is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia. It flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the ...

of the

Brisbane River The Brisbane River (Turrbal language, Turrbal: ) is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia. It flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the ...

and was named after the rowing regattas held there. It was designed by

Richard Gailey Richard Gailey, Sr. (22 April 1834 – 24 April 1924) was an Irish-born Australian architect. Gailey was born in County Donegal, Ireland and emigrated to Australia in 1864, becoming an influential and prolific architect in colonial-era Brisban ...

and built in 1886 by George Gazzard. 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. As ...

on 21 October 1992.

History

The first hotel was established on the site in 1874, as a single-storey wooden building. In 1886, the current and second Regatta Hotel, three-storeyed brick building, was erected for

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

publican William Winterford. The first building was removed to make way for the new premises. The new Regatta was designed by Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, who called tenders in February 1886. It was constructed by contractor George Gazzard, at a cost of £4,800. The Regatta was one of a number of large, masonry, first-class hotels designed by Gailey in the 1880s. Amongst these were the Wickham Hotel (1885),

Prince Consort Hotel Prince Consort Hotel is a heritage-listed hotel at 230 Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Richard Gailey and built from 1887 to 1888 with later extensions. It was added to the Queenslan ...

(1887),

Jubilee Hotel Jubilee Hotel is a heritage-listed hotel at 464–468 St Pauls Terrace, Fortitude Valley, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Richard Gailey and built from 1887 to 1888. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register o ...

(1888) and Empire Hotel (1889). They were designed not just for local patronage, but to attract travellers and visitors. Each replaced an earlier and much humbler hotel on the site, and in their ornate exteriors, they reflected the optimism and bravado of the booming Queensland economy of the 1880s. Winterford opened his new hotel in 1887, anticipating a clientele who would be enticed by the river views, the proximity to town and to the

Toowong railway station Toowong railway station is located on the Main Line railway, Queensland, Main line in Queensland, Australia. It serves the Brisbane suburb of Toowong. It is the closest station to the University of Queensland#St Lucia campus, St Lucia campus of ...

, the weekend regattas on the doorstep, entertainments such as billiards and boating, a well-stocked wine cellar, large well-ventilated bedrooms, family suites, the luxury of hot and cold baths, and good stabling accommodation. However, neither the hotel's comforts nor the Toowong scenery succeeded in attracting the desired patronage. It was first flooded in 1887, then again in 1893. Lack of wider custom, the financial depression of the early 1890s, and the floods of 1893, nearly ruined Winterford. In 1897, he forfeited the Regatta to his mortgagees. Ultimately, the Regatta survived and flourished through a number of owners and lessees. A famous

women's liberation The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminism, feminist intellectualism. It emerged in the late 1960s and continued till the 1980s, primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which resu ...

protest took place in the public bar in 1965, when two women, Merle Thornton and Rosalie Bognor, chained themselves to the public bar footrail in protest at Queensland's restriction of being served drinks in public bars to men only. The protest was the starting point which led to the law being changed in Queensland in 1970. In 2014 the hotel celebrated the protest by renaming the bar at the hotel Merle's Bar. In 2009 as part of the

Q150 Q150 was the sesquicentenary (150th anniversary) of the Separation of Queensland from New South Wales in 1859. Separation established the Colony of Queensland which became the State of Queensland in 1901 as part of the Federation of Australia ...

celebrations, "All chained up for women's rights" was announced as one of the

Q150 Icons The Queensland's Q150 Icons list of cultural icons was compiled as part of Q150 celebrations in 2009 by the Government of Queensland, Australia. It represented the people, places and events that were significant to Queensland Queensland ...

of Queensland for its role as a "Defining Moment". The hotel was refurbished in 1981 and then progressively renovated between 2001 and 2004. It was converted into several modern bars and nightclubs. In the late 20th century, the Regatta attracted

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

staff and students to its bars. The Regatta Hotel was damaged during the

2010–2011 Queensland floods A series of floods hit Queensland, Australia, beginning in December 2010. The floods forced the evacuation of thousands of people from towns and cities. At least 90 towns and over 200,000 people were affected. Damage initially was estimated at A ...

. $10 million was spent on renovations before an official reopening in September 2012.

Description

The Regatta Hotel, located on a prominent site adjacent to the Toowong Reach of the Brisbane River, is a brick building with hipped corrugated-iron roofs. Composed of three storeys and a

basement A basement is any Storey, floor of a building that is not above the grade plane. Especially in residential buildings, it often is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the Furnace (house heating), furnace, water heating, ...

, it is encircled by wide

verandahs A veranda (also spelled verandah in Australian English, Australian and New Zealand English) is a roofed, open-air hallway or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a handrail, railing and frequently ...

, except for a section on the southern side. The verandahs to the rendered street facades display a lavish use of

cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

balustrading A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its c ...

, paired cast-iron Corinthian

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 member ...

and cast-iron and timber

friezes In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neithe ...

. These facades, which curve around the street corner, are surmounted by a solid masonry

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

ornamented by

masonry Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...

finials A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the apex of a dome, spire, tower, roof, or gable or an ...

. The more modest verandahs on the southern and western sides, now somewhat altered, have paired chamfered posts and

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

, and a continuation of the patterned timber frieze. A painted brick elevator shaft has been added to the southern elevation and a fire escape stair to the western elevation. The ground floor, consisting of three bars, service areas and an entry foyer, has been refurbished. Original openings to the verandah have been replaced by sliding glass windows and doors. Sections of the verandah have been enclosed in brick to house toilet facilities. The entry foyer retains the original entry doors and arched openings. The unusual timber staircase located at the rear of the entry foyer runs in a single flight between floors, curving at the lower end of the flight. Rooms on the first floor include a bar, a guest dining room, offices, kitchen, toilets and a guest suite. The bar, formerly a dining room, features a marble fireplace and a pair of curved

French doors A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide securit ...

opening onto the northeast corner of the verandah. The manager's residence and guest accommodation occupy the second floor. The interiors of the first and second floors retain original finishes including pressed metal ceilings and plastered masonry walls ornamented by arches and mouldings. Panelled timber doors with

fanlights A fanlight is a form of lunette window ( transom window), often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sec ...

open off the central hallway. French doors with fanlights lead from the bedrooms and principal public areas to the verandahs. Parts of the first-floor northern and western verandahs have been enclosed with glass walls. The Regatta Hotel retains a substantially intact exterior and a visual prominence along the Toowong Reach of the Brisbane River. The Heritage Bar on the ground floor features leather lounges and a large fireplace.

Heritage listings

The Regatta Hotel is classified by the

National Trust of Queensland National Trust of Queensland is a membership-based community organisation to "promote the natural, Indigenous and cultural heritage" of Queensland. It was founded in 1963. It is a member of the National Trust of Australia, which federates the ...

and was entered into the

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heri ...

. Regatta Hotel was listed on the

on 21 October 1992 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. The Regatta Hotel is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, being evidence of the optimism and exuberance of the 1880s economic boom and evidence of the former use of this part of the Brisbane River for sporting and recreational activities. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a large, ornate 1880s hotel which remains substantially intact. The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. It exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, being a prominent landmark contributing to the riverscape along the Toowong Reach of the Brisbane River. The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history. The Regatta Hotel has a special association with the work of architect Richard Gailey, being one of a group of large 1880s hotels designed by him, which contribute to the architectural character of Brisbane through their imposing presence, extensive use of cast-iron and classical detailing.

Gallery

File:Regatta Hotel, Brisbane, in 2020, 08.jpg, Regatta facade as seen from Sylvan Rd Image:Regatta Hotel, Brisbane, in 2020, 18.jpg, Regatta function room File:Regatta Hotel, Brisbane, in 2020, 13.jpg, The Courtyard Image:Regatta Hotel, Brisbane, in 2020, 04.jpg, Main Bar File:Regatta Hotel, Brisbane, in 2020, 05.jpg, Merle's Bar

References

Attribution

External links

*{{cite web, title=Women 'rattle the chains' in public bars, url=http://splash.abc.net.au/home#!/media/1264357/women-rattle-the-chains-in-public-bars, publisher=

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

, accessdate=30 December 2015 — includes a 5-minute video of the ABC television news broadcast on 10 April 1965 History of Brisbane Heritage-listed hotels in Queensland Queensland Heritage Register Pubs in Brisbane 1874 establishments in Australia Richard Gailey buildings Hotels established in 1874 Hotel buildings completed in 1887 Coronation Drive Toowong Hotels in Brisbane Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register