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.
History
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.
The site originally comprised part of Eastern Suburban Allotment 71 alienated in 1850 by James Gibbon. In that same year some 54 perches of ESA 71 was acquired by William Sam Sutton, licensee of the Bush and Commercial Inn at Kangaroo Point. In December of that year Sutton was granted permission to transfer his publican's license to his new premises also known as the Bush and Commercial Inn (also known as the Commercial Inn), the forebear of the Royal George. Sutton's hotel was one of only a dozen or so licensed premises in Brisbane at this time including one other in Fortitude Valley, Jeremiah Scanlin's the Strangers Home located diagonally opposite the Commercial Inn.
The two inns were well situated on a strategic intersection of what were then known as the roads to (the former penal establishments of) Eagle Farm and New Farm. In addition to passing trade they serviced the fledgling settlement of Fortitude Valley, established in 1849 as a temporary village by some 256 immigrants privately sponsored by John Dunmore Lang, in response to the refusal of government assistance upon their arrival at Moreton Bay. By 1851 however, the Commercial Inn was no longer licensed and Sutton was in financial trouble; his property being offered for sale by the Sheriff in execution of a judgment obtained by Brisbane businessman John Richardson. The Sheriff's advertisement provides the first description of the earliest known hotel on the site; Sutton's Commercial Inn being described as "a large brick Building – one portion carried up one story, and the corner portion roofed in and occupied as a Public-house ... There is also an excellent detached Brick Kitchen, Sleeping Rooms, and Stables, securely fenced in with a high Fence".
Based on a combination of evidence (including the Sheriff's advertisement, a later photograph of the hotel, and 1960s floor plans) it is believed that the hotel at this stage comprised a two-storey brick section with slate roof and cantilevered verandah fronting Ann Street with a single storeyed brick wing wrapping around the corner of Ann and Brunswick Street (the distinctive chamfered section) attached to the northern end of the Ann Street section.
The property was not apparently sold at this time but instead passed to Sutton's creditor, John Richardson. In addition to his business interests, Richardson was the local representative in the New South Wales Legislative Council and a supporter of both John Dunmore Lang and separation. It is not known whether Richardson resided at the property although all buildings were apparently occupied (albeit the Commercial Inn was no longer licensed). In 1853 Richardson advertised the property for sale in two lots, the first lot containing the hotel described as "a corner two-story House, two Cottages, and two Brick Houses in an unfinished state. The House contains two sitting rooms, kitchen, and three bed rooms, and is well adapted for a Public House or Store. The Cottages are plastered and comfortably finished; the whole substantially enclosed, and all occupied". The properties were described as "well worth the attention of all who either require a house of their own or a good investment for their money, as they will be sold fifty per cent, under what they could now be built for".
In October the Moreton Bay Courier reported that the unfinished brick building at Fortitude Valley, formerly in the occupation of Mr Sutton, has been sold by Mr Richardson, the proprietor for £600, and will be opened as a hotel. The property described as subdivisions 2, 3, and 4 of block 3 and sub 1 of block 6 of ESA 71 was acquired by William John Loudon (sometimes called London) who established the Freemasons Arms (also known as the Freemasons Hotel) on the site, obtaining a license in April 1854 becoming the only licensed premises in the Valley, the nearby Strangers Home Inn losing its license in that year.
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.
Given that the hotel building was described on its sale to Loudon as unfinished, it is believed he must have undertaken some building works at this time, possibly adding a second storey to the corner section. During 1854 regular horse and cattle sales were held at the hotel which was apparently considered convenient for its abundant stabling, yards, and excellent paddocks close at hand for the reception of stock previous to day of sale without any extra charge. Loudon remained as licensee of the Freemasons Hotel (renamed the Lamb Inn in 1857) until 1859 although in 1858 the premises (including the hotel and 3 cottages) were sold to Jeremiah Daly. In 1860 George Challenger became licensee and in the following year John Harvey who remained until the hotel license was taken up in 1863 by George Dickens, who had acquired the hotel in 1861. It is Dickens who is believed to have changed the name of the hotel to the Royal George (in 1863). Apparently on account of ill health, Dickens advertises the hotel for let in July 1864:
THE ROYAL GEORGE HOTEL fronting Ann and Brunswick Streets Fortitude Valley. Comprising 18 rooms, out houses, good stabling, spacious yard, and capital cellar. The above is a corner allotment fronting Ann Street being the main road to Breakfast Creek, Eagle Farm, German Station, Bald Hills, Sandgate, and Pine River with a frontage to Brunswick Street leading to Bowen Bridge, Kedron Brook & c. The House is an old established one, and doing a good business, and the proprietor's reason for relinquishing business is on account of ill health in his family ...
A new licensee was not apparently found until the following year when the license was transferred to Henry Penfold and in 1866 to Michael Daly and in the same year back to Dickens (until 1868). In 1868 the property was conveyed to Dickens' mortgagee, the Anglican Bishop of Brisbane. A Sam Loudon (also written as London) is listed as licensee from 1869–1870 when Henry Farley assumes the license until 1872. 1872 is to mark the beginning of a more stable proprietorship of the Royal George. In that year William Ruddle leases the hotel from the Anglican Church (officially the Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane) who owned in addition to the Royal George several other blocks of land on this part of Brunswick Street. A photo taken during this time (between 1872 and 1886) shows the Royal George hotel much as it is believed to have existed in the 1850s. By this time a second storey had been added to the chamfered corner section; an adjoining single-storey building on Brunswick Street also formed part of the hotel site.
In 1885 Ruddle purchased the hotel with a mortgage back to the Anglican church of £3,000. The 30.5 perches of land included the site (to the west of the Royal George) on which the Ruddle's building was later to be erected. In the following year major alterations and additions were undertaken to the hotel, the first of two stages of work which transformed the building into a late Victorian hotel, a form the Royal George would take until the 1960s. This transformation was the work of prominent architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley. Stanley (1839–1897) emigrated from Scotland to Queensland in 1861 joining the Office of the Queensland Colonial Architect in 1863 becoming Superintendent of Roads and Buildings (later called Colonial Architect) from 1872–1881. Queensland's longest serving Colonial Architect, his work included the Brisbane's Supreme Court (1874–79) and the General Post Office (1871–1872). Described as the best known of all Queensland's early architects because of the quality, diversity, and extent of his work, his private clients included several banks including the Queensland National Bank (for whom Stanley designed their headquarters in Queen Street (1880–1885)) and the Anglican Church. His hotel work included: The Grands in Maryborough (1884–1885) and Bundaberg (1885–1886) Transcontinental Hotel in George Street, Brisbane (1884) Lennon's Hotel, George Street, Brisbane (1883–1885) (demolished) Clarence Hotel at Clarence Corner, Woolloongabba (1888–1889)
A contemporary report describes Stanley's additions as including taking off the roof of the present building and raising it , extending the hotel further along Brunswick Street, making a large cellar underneath, and the addition of cast iron verandahs to the Ann and Brunswick Street elevations. Internally there were new bedrooms, parlours, bar, large dining room, kitchen and offices.
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.
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.