PIZZA PUB - CNR WELLINGTON AND FREDERICK STREETS

This hotel,as a building, is often overlooked, I suspect because it fronts onto Wellington Street (this view is of the Frederick Street side) and is somewhat overloaded with poles and wires, lights and signs, which draw attention away from the building itself.  (As seen in the smaller unedited picture.

The Pizza Pub has a much richer heritage than its current name would suggest, as it is in fact one of the oldest buildings in Launceston.  

THE ELEPHANT AND CASTLE, ORIENT HOTEL AND PIZZA PUB

The original Elephant and Castle was first licensed in September 1830, to John Connolly, who was also the owner. The report in the Launceston Advertiser gives its location as “Brisbane Street.” The names of hotels did move around time from time , but as the same record incorrectly indicated that the Royal Oak (which is in Brisbane Street) was in Wellington Street, it was probably a typo. Its worth remembering that just because a contemporary source says it's so, doesn't mean its true! In any case, by the time the license passed to Thomas Kelly in 1833, the location was established as “Wellington Street”. Connolly was taken to court over outstanding debts in 1834, and was threatened with sale of the property if they remained unpaid. Kelly had his own problems – he placed an advertisement in The Advertiser in 1835 cautioning against extending credit to his wife, who had left him “without provocation.”  

As the Elephant and Castle, it was home to annual horse sales, as well as the civic functions typically held in hotels in the nineteenth century – inquests, meetings of sporting clubs and so on

In 1836 it was,for a time, renamed the Currency Lass Public House.

I'm not sure when it became The Orient but it was named thus is 1911. If you're keen you could track the licensing information printed in contemporary newspapers, and probably work it out. There was a serious fire, in which a man died in 1928. Most of the roof was destroyed and areas not damages by the flames suffered water damage.

In the 1920s, the hotel (as did many others) had difficulties with accusations of illegal trading. In 1923, for instance, it was claimed that the folk going in the doors after six were using the billiards or wireless plant, and/or attending meetings of axeman (chopping events were held in the yard of the hotel) or cyclists!! Although doubtless people attended the hotel to do all those things, the explanation seems a little dodgy, especially given that the police were clearly convinced there was a case to answer. but the license was renewed none-the-less.There were accusations of illegal bookmaking in the 1930s, and at least one brawl large enough to result in newspaper reports and formal charges, the following decade.

The hotel has been reborn in modern times as The Pizza Pub, and is part of a larger retail group.  Its founders would not have begun to understand the concept of home delivered gourmet pizzas!!  I suspect, though, that the Elephant and Castle/Currency Lass/Orient/Pizza Pub might make a good case study of how hotels have changed over time.