When was the Ruddle's Building in Brisbane built?
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Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's Building is a heritage-listed hotel at 323-335 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built from to the 1960s. It is also known as Bush & Commercial Inn, Commercial Inn, Freemasons Arms, and Ruddle's Corner. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 3 August 1998.
Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's Building
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The evolution of the Royal George Hotel over several stages from the 1850s is important in illustrating the development of Fortitude Valley. The surviving 1850s core is important and rare surviving evidence of the beginnings of the area; its transformation in 1886 to a late Victorian hotel during Queensland's economic boom in the 1880s was part of a substantial rebuilding of the Valley at this time including the building and rebuilding of a number of Valley hotels. Despite the removal of much of the Victorian decoration in the 1960s the form of the Victorian hotel remains to illustrate this period when the Valley rivalled North and South Brisbane as one of the principal commercial precincts of Brisbane. Erected in 1901 by Royal George owner and licensee, William Ruddle, Ruddle's building was built to cater for the continued commercial growth of the Valley despite the general downturn in the Queensland economy during the 1890s.
Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's Building
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In the same year (1901) Ruddle mortgaged his hotel block to the church for £10,000 apparently to finance the erection of the Ruddle's building; Hall & Dods called for tenders for the erection of 3 shops banking premises and additions etc. Robin Dods (1868-1920) had a highly developed architectural imagination; his introduction of the formal and philosophical ideas of both the British Arts and Crafts movement and Edwardian classicism and his significant functional solutions to the problems of living and building in Queensland combined to achieve an architectural revolution in Brisbane. The two storeyed Ruddle's building situated between the Royal George and the TC Beirne Department Store (for whom Hall & Dods carried out several large commissions including substantial works to the Valley store) comprised several different tenancies whose presence was variously articulated in the form and decoration of the building. The western portion of building was designed and used as premises for the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney (previously the tenants of TC Beirne the bank in the building until 1942 when they moved to their new premises on the opposite side of Brunswick Street). The ground floor portion housed the banking chamber; the first floor with its recessed loggia overlooking Brunswick Street (illustrative of Dod's interest in climatic adaptations) may have provided accommodation for the manager. The portion adjoining the hotel housed several commercial tenancies initially including a jeweller, a ham and beef store and a dentist. Above the stores was a photographer's studio occupied by William Ruddle's son, Roland until 1930/31.
Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's Building
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The Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's building are located on the strategic intersection of Ann and Brunswick Streets (now Brunswick Street Mall), Fortitude Valley. A hotel is known to have existed on this site since 1850. The three storey brick Royal George Hotel contains an early (possibly as early as 1850) two storey core to which several major stages of works have been undertaken. In 1886 major additions transformed the hotel into a late Victorian building; by 1924 a third floor had been added; works undertaken in the 1960s (the current manifestation of the hotel) stripped much of this Victorian decoration from the building. The adjoining two storey brick Ruddle's building was erected in 1901 by William Ruddle whose family operated the Royal George for some 60 years. The building was designed by Brisbane architect Robin Dods to complement the hotel (as it then was) and to accommodate a number of different tenancies including the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney. Together the two buildings form what was known as Ruddle's corner.
Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's Building
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The new Royal George was part of an 1880s hotel boom in the Valley including the nearby Empire Hotel, Prince Consort Hotel, Wickham Hotel, and Jubilee Hotel, all built between 1885 and 1888. Each was a substantial building located on a prominent site, designed to be conspicuous and offering extensive accommodation and the most modern facilities. Significantly each was funded by a Valley businessman investing in the local community. Such buildings (albeit the Royal George in a somewhat more modest way) reflected the optimism and bravado of the booming Queensland economy of the 1880s, a period of unprecedented economic growth when Brisbane was virtually rebuilt as a prosperous late 19th century Victorian era city, an image sustained until well after the Second World War.
Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's Building
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In 1902 William Ruddle's son, Ernest became the licensee. During his proprietorship a number of changes were made. By 1914 part of the adjoining Ann Street building (purchased by William Ruddle in 1901) had been incorporated as part of the hotel. By 1924 the second stage of the Victorian manifestation of the hotel had occurred with the addition of a third floor containing guest accommodation. This work involved the replacement of the semi-circular pediments by triangular pediments (echoing the eastern pediment on Ruddle's building) and included the addition of a third floor to the adjoining Ann Street building (or buildings) with verandahs at the two upper levels and pediment detailing continued from the hotel building to complete the visual incorporation of the building with the Royal George. An advertisement in the Brisbane Centenary Official Historical Souvenir (1924) proclaims the Royal George as ""One of Brisbane's Oldest Establishments"" (evidenced by a photograph dated 1854 to 1886 showing the early brick hotel) but also as ""A First-class New and Up-to-date Modern Hotel"" (illustrated by a contemporary photograph of the three story Victorian hotel; dated 1886 to 1923).
Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's Building
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By 1854, only five years after the arrival of the immigrants of the Fortitude, the (Fortitude) Valley was a thriving village exhibiting the most visible changes in Brisbane: there was a ""good brick inn"" (Loudon's Freemasons Hotel) in the main street and a constable to keep order; North Brisbane and Fortitude Valley were almost joined with perhaps a kilometre of vacant land between the buildings of the two communities; the land through to Breakfast Creek was opening up; and Fortitude Valley became part of the suburban spread with the subdivision and sale of the early large allotments.
Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's Building
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In 1936, the Telegraph trumpeted the sale of the hotel to brewers Castlemaine Perkins: ""HISTORIC ROYAL GEORGE HOTEL IN VALLEY SOLD AT A RECORD PRICE"". This was to mark the end of a 60-year association by the Ruddle family.
Work undertaken during this period included prior to 1949 a cantilevered awning being installed to the former bank section of Ruddle's building. By 1951 other changes to the Ruddle's building included the removal of various ancillary structures to the rear of the building, the erection of toilets at ground level to the rear of what was now the former bank section, and additions to the rear of the eastern end of the Ruddle's building. In 1961 drawings for the second major transformation of the Royal George were prepared by architect HS McDonald. The works costing £100,000 were undertaken by contractor Frederick Allan Pidgeon. They involved the removal of the Victorian verandahs; the conversion of some French doors to windows, the removal of the entry from the chamfered corner, and the incorporation of part of the ground floor of Ruddle's building into the hotel.
Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's Building
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Despite a downturn in the Queensland economy in the 1890s the Valley continued to develop, led by the large retailers TC Beirne and James McWhirter, who both established stores on Brunswick Street in the 1890s which quickly grew to become large department stores and further fuelled by the developing Brisbane tram network in which the Valley was a central node. By the turn of the century the Valley was established as the second major commercial district of the city supplanting South Brisbane and the Woolloongabba Fiveways.
Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's Building
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In 1986 the properties were acquired by Quetel Pty Ltd (later Royal George Hotel Holdings). More recent 1990s changes have followed on the formation of the Brunswick Street mall which saw the construction of a raised platform across the former footpath outside the hotel and part of Ruddle's building and the removal of walls on the ground floor of Ruddle's building. Both the Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's building continue as active parts of the social fabric of the Valley: the Royal George accommodating both pub patrons and residents; Ruddle's building currently houses a bar and live music venue in the former bank and a cafe and two bars in the other section.
Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's Building