Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's Building
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
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 (1871-2). 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 (1880–85)) and the Anglican Church. His hotel work included: