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Built/licensed: 1851

Location: 32 Burwood Road, Hawthorn

Delicensed: c.1856

Status of building: Demolished.

Other names: British Crown

Heritage Reviews / Conservation studies: City of Boroondara - Thematic Environmental History (March 2012) p. 105

MMBW Maps: N/A

Comments: This hotel was opened by John Connell on land owned by Thomas Power on the eastern corner of Yarra St and Burwood Road - the first known hotel in the area.

From The Argus - 16 April 1851

"John Connell applied for a license for a house on the opposite side of the Richmond Punt. Mr J. B. Bennett said he appeared for the applicant; and he would hand their worships a petition signed by the majority of the cattle salesmen of Melbourne, and others in favour of the application. In driving the cattle for the Melbourne market, there was no other place near at which they could stop, as the hotel on the other side of the punt had no yards, and the bye-law regulating the driving of cattle through the streets of the city, required that they should no be driven through the streets after eight o'clock in the morning. The salesmen had no choice but to stay at the Yarra Pound Hotel, a distance of twelve miles from town, and he put it to their worships whether the cattle when driven that distance were fit to be slaughtered. The Chairman said it was intended to erect extensive cattle yards at the Abattoirs.

District Chief Constable Brodie said that in going to Dandenong, the having an Inn on that side of the river would save a distance of four miles, but when he was last at the house, there were no yards.

Mr Chambers said he was instructed to oppose the application, and he presented to the bench a petition in favour of the present Inn at the other side, and stated that the addition of a licensed house opposite it would be injurious to the landlord of the present licensed house. The Chairman said that the house was on the site of an intended village, and that there were at present two policemen stationed there. The license was granted."

In 1854, when Connell opened the Hawthorne Hotel, the new proprietor of the Queen's Arms, James Sullivan, was initially refused a license "In consequence of the proprietor offering the inspector the price of a bridle."

It was later made into a private residence, occupied by Dr Frederick Daniel, one of the first doctors in the area.

Licensees:

1851 - John Connell

1855 - James Sullivan