History

The Albert Park Hotel.

A landmark from yesterday, a landmark for today, and tomorrow.

Thomas Walsh and his wife Margaret opened the Albert Park Hotel in August 1883. It was designed with private families and single gentlemen in mind. These people would come and stay at the hotel, enjoy the surrounds and activities in the Albert Park area and dine in the hotel. This was to be the start of a long journey of gastronomic history at this famous location.

In 1908, the South Melbourne Council undertook a review of hotels in the South Melbourne region which resulted in the closure of 13 properties in the area due to compromised quality of the buildings and the services they offered. Further hotels were closed over the ensuing years, leaving just 31 functioning properties by June 1920. The Albert Park Hotel remaining a functioning property throughout that time.

The traditional relationship between hotels and dining is a long and celebrated one, and the Albert Park Hotel is no exception. In 1916, Montague Street was referred to as a 'river of moving humanity' during lunch hour with the thick flow of people coming into the area to lunch at the various neighbourhood hotels.

The Albert Park Hotel is a 19th Century Victorian building underneath its 1930s modernist, renovated facade. The resulting renovation, which changed the nature and appeal of the Hotel is polite and felicitous, fitting in well with the historic commercial and residential streetscape, one which is among some of the most desirable in Melbourne. The three storey hotel is elegant and unique, a powerful force of design that wears its porthole windows and ornate wrought iron as a signature amongst more conventional structures.

The latest internal renovation serves to complement a classical exterior by making it useful in line with current trends, and ensure its status as a memorable venue for all those who chose to use its facilities. There has been a strong effort made to amplify the features of the building and replicate the atmosphere of the grand old Hotel.

The Albert Park Hotel has a strong family history as in recent years, the primary function of the venue has been in reflecting its own name 'The Albert Park Hotel', serving the local public as the default choice for refreshment and of course, enjoyment. The latest renovation on this historic and proud venue facilitate the reinterpretation of the use of Hotels in today's context. This is a sophisticated venue that offers itself in a spectrum of different moods, and in various capacities to continue to serve, as it has for over a century as the Albert Park Hotel.