FOOTSCRAY’S historic Belgravia Hotel, the birthplace of the Footscray Cricket Club, could be demolished to make way for a 12-storey apartment building.
A planning application for an
$18 million development (pictured) of the pub and an adjacent pool hall on the corner of Nicholson and Buckley streets in Footscray was lodged in January with the Department of Planning and will soon go to Planning Minister Matthew Guy for approval.
It will include shops on the ground level and 105 one and two-bedroom apartments.
The building, opposite Victoria University’s Nicholson Street campus, would need up to 137 parking spaces but the application has provided for only 70.
Maribyrnong mayor John Cumming, who owned and ran the pub as a live music venue under the name the House of Fools from 1995 to 2004, said the original plans were not very attractive and the council wanted to see part of the historically important building retained.
“[They wanted] to rip down the old building and build a new one that wasn’t very attractive. We’d expect the facade is kept or [retained as] parts of the building. There is a request for reduction in the car parking for the site but being a hotel the place was licensed for about 400 patrons so this is a reduction in those terms.”
VU facilities director Gary Carter said the university was aware of the application and would not object to it.
The pub was first licensed to George Cooper in 1875 and carried the name of the area bounded by Buckley, Victoria and Charles streets – Belgravia – before it was named Seddon after early 20th century New Zealand prime minister Richard Seddon, who .
lived in the area before moving to Bendigo and New Zealand.
It was at the Belgravia that the Footscray Cricket Club was formed, and according to a historical excerpt on the Western Bulldogs’ website, a meeting there in 1886 led to the formation of a senior club.
Although closed for some time, the redevelopment of the Belgravia follows the recently closed Buckingham Hotel in Footscray, which will be turned into an apartment building.
“Being a past publican and owner of the site it’s shocking that we’re losing the pubs,” Cr Cumming said.
