Fitzroy history – the Cavan hotel on Brunswick St
I’ve been trying to learn more about the former Cavan hotel on Brunswick St, but there is not much information available online. It has been the premises of several business in the past few years, and all have struggled there. Most recently, there was a computer repair and accessory shop, and before that a lingerie shop.
It was built in 1959 and functioned as a hotel until 1936, when government regulations designed to reduce the number of licensed premises in the Fitzroy and Collingwood area forced its closure. According to the Argus, Thursday 5 March 1936, p13:
The Argus, Tuesday 21 April 1936, p11, reports that the licensee got the bad news a month later.
Does anyone know what the building was used for between the 1930s and the 2000s?
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January 17th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Hi Brian. Funnily enough I was just looking at that building and pondering its history yesterday.
There’s often surprisingly, not a lot of historical info online about pubs. You will probably have to go down the book/archive route. Here are a few ideas:
You might try the very useful Cole/Tetlow Index of Hotel Records, compiled by a volunteer at State Library Victoria http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/about/information/publications/microforms/tetlow.html
Also in the SLV, you can find the Sands & McDougall Directories, which should list the hotel and may be able to answer some (very basic) questions. They ran from 1860 – 1974 and can provide details about individuals and businesses (probably including licencees) and will probably reveal what the building was used for in the period you are looking at.
and the Public Record Office of Victoria probably hold things like licensing records, building applications (including blueprints) and correspondance relating to the hotel
http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/
Hope this helps!
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January 17th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
BTW if you have any nerdy pub questions about why they were closing a lot of smaller pubs in that period … i could go on for ages. i helped curate an exhibition about pubs in Sydney … and it became a bit of an obsession :-)
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January 17th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Thanks Nicole! I’d love to have the time to research things thoroughly by exploring the library archives, but if I cannot find something quickly I usually have to move on as there is always something else to write about.
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