Back to Hotels in Kew

Built / licensed: 1854. It was demolished and rebuilt in 1956,

Location: 636 High Street, Kew.

Delicensed: N/A

Status of building: Existing hotel

Other names: Harp Hotel

Heritage Reviews / Conservation studies: City of Boroondara - Thematic Environmental History (March 2012) pp. 106, 109.

City of Kew Urban Conservation Study (1988) - Volume 2, Part 1

MMBW Maps: Detail plan 1601, 1913; detail plan 2019, 1926.

Comments: The oldest hotel in Kew still in operation, built by Edward Glynn on the corner of High Street and Harp Road. Country horse races were held at the Harp of Erin Hotel in the 1860s, and it was also a meeting place for the Melbourne Hounds and the Hawthorn Harriers.

Harp of Erin Estate c.1888, showing location of hotel.

The Harp of Erin was demolished and rebuilt after the old hotel had its liquor licence revoked in 1955 for being in a "ruinous and dilapidated" state. The new hotel, designed by Robert McIntyre, was built in 1956, keeping the same name.

Licensees:

1855/56 - Richard Glynn

1857 - Edward Glynn

1858-1859 - Robert Mills

1860/61 - Mrs Bridget Glynn

Sept 1861 - John Feenon

1862 - John Finane

1864 - John Feenane

1865 - John Hickey

1866 - Mrs Glynn

1867 - J. Delaney

1869/78 - John Kearney (also listed as John Carney)

1879 - Michael Carmody

1880-82 - John Delaney

1883/91 - William Alex Hunt

1895 - J. Delaney

1900 - Sara Delaney

1901 - William Ward

1913 - Gordon Macdonald

1922 - William H. Jones

John T. Mitchell

1923 - Leo J. Burns

1934 - William Fowler

1935-6 - Maurice Joseph and Minnie Edith Danaher

1937-38 - Clarence George Thomas Williams

1939 - Aileen Falkenberg

1940 - R. W. Fowler