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.
Architecture of Melbourne
The Federal Coffee Palace, a Second Empire style building on Collins Street, was constructed in 1883. At the time of opening, an article in "The Age" declared it as one of "Australia's most splendid" buildings. It was commissioned by politicians and property developers James munro and James Mirams. The exterior was designed by Ellerker and Killburn, and the interior by William Pitt in a joint venture. At a cost of £150,000, the building became one of Melbourne's grand ornamented hotels. A preference for modern American hotels saw the death of old world establishments like the Federal Hotel and despite public outcry and petitions, it was demolished in the early 1970s. A similar fate was met by other grand buildings of this era, including the smaller scale Melbourne Queen Victoria Hospital (1848–1994), the 10-storey Fink's Building (1888–1967), Scott's Hotel (1837–1962), Victoria Building and Queens Walk Arcade (1888–1960s), APA Tower (1880s–1967), the Fish Markets (1892–1959) and the Tivoli Opera House (1866–1969).
Although never reaching the height of the APA Building, several other buildings dominated Melbourne's skyline at the turn of the century and still exist today. A.C. Goode House, with nine floors, was built in 1892 and extended in 1903 by Best Overend & Partners–it is one of two of the only remaining historic skyscrapers in Melbourne. The building has been known under different names, including National Mutual Life Association Building, and most recently as the Bank of New Zealand Australia (BNZA) House. A.C. Goode House was constructed in a high Gothic Revival style, in a beige freestone on a brick and concrete structure with a heavily vertical facade. The building features Gothic arch spires at its roof. It was designed by the Adelaide firm Wright, Reed and Beaver. A.C. Goode House was added to the Victorian Heritage Register on 9 October 1974. In a statement of significance dated from 1999, the description details the "aesthetic an darchitectural importance as a fine example of a Federation Gothic style building. The exterior facade contains many features distinctive to the style such as exuberant modelling, a turret, parapeted gables and masonry mullions. It has interiors to match, with features such as exotic dados of grey marble, red marble pilasters and columns, and white marble stairs in the foyer. The interior also features an elaborate banking chamber with a fully ornamented ceiling". A number of other buildings constructed during Melbourne's landboom survived the later century and still stand today, including the Royal Exhibition Building constructed for the 1880 World's Fair, William Wardell's Gothic Bank (1883), the Hotel Windsor (1884), William Pitt's Venetian Gothic style Old Stock Exchange (1888) and Twentyman & Askew's Stalbridge Chambers (1890).