City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

VOLUME 2: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORYcommenced nearby, providing hundreds of customers for the traditional after-work drink. Thehotel expanded its bar to accommodate them (Edge, 2004: 30).Roadside inns have been discussed in Chapter 3, however some of these inns took on a new lifeas the community grew up around them. The Pilgrim Inn, opened on High Street in 1844 byRobert Duff, became the Red House in the 1860s and was run, in conjunction with a horseracing track, by J. Goyder. The race track had a grandstand, and hosted many sporting eventsincluding athletics and such ‘sports’ as pigeon shooting and deer hunting. The hotel was rebuiltand renamed the Croxton Park Hotel, but it continued its sporting associations under publicanJames Randall. Randall added new grandstands and a training room, and the hotel became thehome of the Northcote Football Club. Early in the twentieth century activities at the hotelsportsground attracted the criticism of the local Protestant churches, concerned aboutdrunkenness amongst the young men who frequented the place. They persuaded the Councilto refuse registration of the sports ground, but even though Council’s decision was upheld incourt, the licence was eventually restored (Edge, 2004:22; Lemon, 1983:155-6). Croxton ParkHotel has been rebuilt several times and it now hosts the ‘sport’ of gambling with its gamingrooms.Since it opened in 1854, Northcote’s Peacock Inn Hotel has played a major role in thecommunity, changing over time to accommodate the community’s requirements. Its secondowner, George Plant, was a local Councillor and Mayor of Northcote. In many parts ofVictoria early municipal bodies held their meetings in hotels before they acquired their owncouncil premises. At Northcote, early Council meeting were held in a room adjoining thePeacock Inn. Plant was also the local contractor who built the Rucker’s Hill ramp. On Plant’sdeath in 1891, his wife Catherine took over the licence, and several other women publicansfollowed. The hotel was rebuilt and remodelled in the art deco style in the 1930s, and nowincludes a bistro and beer garden (Edge, 2004:42).Figure 34Peacock Inn Hotel , c1980[DHE, ID 47]The influence of the Protestant churches through the temperance movement in the early partof the twentieth century led to the closure of many of Melbourne’s hotels and also reducedopening hours. From 1906 a formal process of licensing production began to reduce thestatutory numbers of Hotels (Butler et al, 1987:viii). One of Darebin hotels to be closed wasthe Prince Alfred Hotel, on the corner of High and Showers Streets Preston, which tradedfrom 1865 to 1922. The building is now used for retail premises (Edge, 2004:46-7). Anotherconsequence was that in the decade from 1923-1933 many hotels invested in upgrading orreplacement of buildings so as to retain their licenses (Butler et al, 1987:viii). The JunctionHotel at 2-4 High Street, Preston is an example of a hotel that was demolished and replacedduring that time.In the sparsely populated northern reaches of Darebin, it was not until the mid twentiethcentury that hotels appeared. The Reservoir Hotel opened in 1962 to serve the growingcommunity. The Summerhill Hotel was built in 1967 on the site of the Plenty Road sandpits,59