20 LINDSAY STREET

ARTHOUSE HOSTEL, INVERESK

Despite information suggesting that this lovely building was built in 1888 (which is even written on the front) as a parsonage....I'm now confident that it was always intended to be a hotel, and was built a couple of years after this date. Although it may have been a parsonage at a much later date, I can't find any references to confirm when this may have been. (Perhaps someone else could help with this information).

The Daily Telegraph of 25th September 1890 describes the building and says that a new hotel was in the "course of erection." Douglas and Collins (a legal firm that still exists) applied on behalf of Mrs Bridget Maria Green for a licence to sell alcohol in December of that year - at the time the building was neither "finished or furnished".

Subsequent licensees included Catherine Green, Walter Knott, Thomas Hogan, Billy Johnson, Henry Bennett, William Kirkwood, John Etchells, John Ford and John Marvel.

When Fred E Howers held the licence in the 1890s the hotel embraced the mining boom. He had an exhibition of mineral samples, and advertised that he was able to purchase wolfram and shale on behalf of a Sydney syndicate, and could also negotiate with anyone holding rights to land where these minerals were located.

As with most hotels at the time, the Esplanade in its early days was the centre of community activity - band concerts, political meetings, sporting club functions, inquests and more were all held on the premises.

The North bank of the Esplanade (which seems to have been re-named Lindsay Street around the time of the development of the Railway wharves at the end of the road), was always the "colourful" side of town. There was a "serious fracas" in April 1907 in which six sailors from the gunboat Protector "took a prominent part." "Excitement was heightened" by a civilian with a revolver, and 15 windows were smashed. The establishment had a bit of a history of flouting opening regulations, and in1949 Robert Grubb lost his liquor licence after many warnings and three convictions for Sunday trading, which was banned at the time.

Being on the river bank before levees were built meant that the hotel was affected by floods. In 1893, around 40 families sought refuge from rising waters, but during the 1929 floods those who had sheltered in the Esplanade had to be rescued from the top floor using a rope ladder. (Pictures taken during the 1927 flood can be seen on the LINC website).

In the 1930s there was a very good chance that the hotel would have been forced to close or be changed beyond recognition, when in 1936 the Licensing Court considered whether the existing six wooden hotels in Launceston should be forced to rebuild in fireproof materials. The matter was not settled in the negative until 1939.

In recent times the building has been a B&B and a backpackers hostel, but, as the Arthouse Hostel it is at the time of wrting for sale, so who knows what the future may hold.