136 WELLINGTON STREET

BRITANNIA HOUSE, 136 WELLINGTON STREET

This building is described by the Tasmanian Heritage Council as “A two storey Georgian building with ordered fenestration, a hipped roof, narrow boxed eaves and an articulated corner.” For those who are wondering I'll save you the trouble of looking up “fenestration” which seems to just mean “windows.

There are a lot of comparatively recent additions to the basic structure so its easy to drive by and not appreciate the rather nice structure underneath (rusty roof and all). The Heritage Council's data sheet records the building at 136 Wellington Street as originally being the “Britannic Hotel.” There are several references in early newspapers to the Britannia in Wellington Street, but none that I can find to the Britannic Hotel............so maybe a typo?

The earliest reference I found to an establishment by the former name was an inquest held on the premises in February 1839. In 1840 it is referred to as “Britannia Inn,” in 1843 it was the “Britannia Tavern”. Later that decade it is referred to as “The Britannia Wine Vaults” and later still as the “Britannia Wine Cellar.” Patrick Monaghan was the licensee in 1845. Unfortunately beyond “Wellington Street” there is little indication of precisely where the hotel(s) was/were located.

This extract from the Launceston Family Album (a record of those who attended the Tasmanian Exhibition” of 1891-92) provides some helpful clues: 

“Gertrude Elizabeth Doolan was born in Launceston on 20 May 1868, the fourth child of Thomas Joseph Doolan and his wife Jane Monaghan (died Oct 1920). Gertrude was believed to have stayed at home as housekeeper to her mother and brothers following the death of her father in Dec 1885. She lived out her life at 'Brittania House', which was formerly the Brittania Wine Vaults, with her two brothers Gervase and Arthur. The building was later to become the funeral parlour of the Doolan family”. -Margaret Brown & Janice Fletcher Oct 2005

A quick search confirmed that the location of Doolan's funeral parlour was, indeed, located at 136 Wellington Street.  For the blog photo, 

I photoshopped out an inconveniently located telegraph pole, but there was nothing I could do about the “modern” extensions and all the signage. When you next drive by, though, it's worth looking beyond the obvious exterior to the rather nice nineteenth century building hiding underneath.