Hello everyone out the designing your days for the Architecture and design community. I hope that you're well and being the architect of your own health and adventures where ever you are and what ever you are doing around the world!
So while I wait for Spring to turn back from this freezing Antarctic winter snap and back into burgeoning summer again so I can go back to Docklands to focus on what I think it the single most unique building there, I had to duck up the road today and past one of the most intriguing pubs that we have in the area.
I have featured a lot of pubs around Melbourne in many communities, particularly my #WednesdayWalks, aswell as the #architectureanddesign communities over the past year or so and that it because you literally cannot walk anywhere in this part of Melbourne, or even in greater Melbourne without passing a pub- or what was once a pub.
I have also noticed over the years walking past them that most of them were built around the same time- the 1860's through to the 1880's and I can't believe that the population of Melbourne was partying way harder back then in the 19th Century than we are here now in the 21st century...π
Another thing that I have noticed is that most of the pubs- because of being built in the same era, are of similar design- all pointing to a historical event involving the British Royalty, therefore of Victorian or Edwardian style, whereas this one, the Maori Chief Hotel in South Melbourne, is to an extent of the same overall Edwardian/Victorian appearance, but also has a few unique features to it, On a considerably grander scale, similar treatment can be seen on the three-storey Maori Chief Hotel, Moray Street, South Melbourne (1875). [//]:# (!pinmapple -37.829847 lat 144.962185 long The monumental Maori Chief Hotel d3scr)
The number of curved pediments and urns above the parapet is unusual, as are the French windows to the splayed corner at first floor level and the formality of the flat hood moulds and console brackets above the windows.
Now in this era of mainly royal British inspired architecture, you would think that having a pub named the Maori Chief Hotel with Some French and other attributes would be quite unusual and on the surface, I think it is a bit, but considering that the Maori, the indigenous New Zealanders- our closet neighbour also came to Australia during the Goldrush years (and probably sailed here many times before that...) with a wide variety of other nations from around the world as stated here in this exploratory article by FRED CAHIR & IAN D. CLARK in the New Zealand Journal of History: The MΔori Presence in Victoria, Australia, 1830β1900: that Typically historians have paid limited attention to the involvement of indigenous peoples in the history of gold rushes and gold-mining.
Yet there is significant evidence that demonstrates that various indigenous groups
were engaged with the opportunities that gold presented.
For example John Singleton, a surgeon on the Victorian goldfields and staunch advocate for the
establishment of the Aboriginal Station at Framlingham in western Victoria in the 1860s, wrote explicitly of his close associations with people of all nations on the Victorian goldfields during the 1850s, stating that βmen of almost every European and Asiatic nation and language were hereβ, includingβGreeks and Germans, Danes, Swedes, French, Spanish, Porutugese and Italians, Hindoos, Negroes, Malays, Chinese, with Maoris, and other Pacific Islandersβ.
Early statistical records, shipping records and even a hotel name such as South Melbourneβs βMaori Chief Hotelβ (Argus, 16 June 1892), possibly commemorating the MΔori who lived there, indicate that the ports and seaside suburbs of Melbourne were a focal point for the MΔori in Victoria in the nineteenth century http://www.nzjh.auckland.ac.nz/docs/2014/NZJH_48_1_05.pdf
However despite all of this information and evidence, there is little that I can find on the Maori Chief Hotel and the historical significance and a definitive reason why it was named as such, which is such a shame as I would love to know what inspired the first owner to name it after the Maori's especially considering the beautiful old mural of the Maori Chief watching over all who have walked past during the last 154 years. Afterall, to have such a unique name compared to all of the standard British named pubs around here, I think that there has to be some sort of cool story behind it as I imagine that it was named as such to honour the Maori people for some specific reason- other than just that they're awesome people. (BIG love to Te, Mere, Lua,Tanya, Lani, Tui, Junie, Miriana, Darren and everyone else I've been lucky enough to become friends with over the years. Miss ya heaps guys!)
What I have found tells a vague story about the building's provenance First licensed by John Reidy in 1867, the Maori Chief Hotel, whose name probably derives from an association with Maori groups who visited Melbourne in 1863 and 1866, was taken over by John Reidyβs widow Johanna (Walsh) Reidy after his death in 1878. The hotel stayed within the family for several years: in 1885, the license was transferred to Johannaβs new husband, a Scot named Andrew Black, and eventually to Johannaβs brother-in-law Peter Campbell and sister, Mary Campbell.
The original 1867 building was replaced in 1875 according to the design specifications of architect M Hennessy who had also designed the Meagherβs Family Hotel (now Palace) and Freerβs Family Hotel (now Bellβs). It has remained an architectural landmark in South Melbourne, both for its dominance over the corner on which it stands (tall, three storeyed, relatively narrow) and the high quality of its detailing. A huge painting of a Maori Chief sits above the entrance to the hotel. http://www.skhs.org.au/SKHShotels/maori_chief_hotel.htm
And unfortunately, that is all I can find so far on the Maori Chief Hotel, so if anyone else can tell me anything else, I would love to hear it!
I'd also love to take you inside and up to the rooftop bar, but unfortunately it's closed- as with most things here still (lockdown...), so that will have to wait until next time.
Thank you so much for reading my post, I really hope that you enjoyed it and look forward to your comments and thoughts.
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