The Hotel Windsor

Melbourne, Australia. Located on Spring Street in the Parliament precinct, facing Parliament House on Bourke Hill.

The Hotel WindsorMelbourne, Australia

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Practical information

180 rooms and signature suites.
Restaurant One Eleven and its celebrated afternoon tea in the heritage Grand Dining Room; the Cricketers Bar and the top-hatted doorman are Melbourne institutions.
A grand staircase, ballroom and twin Second Empire towers; the only surviving purpose-built Victorian grand hotel in Melbourne.
Located on Spring Street in the Parliament precinct, facing Parliament House on Bourke Hill.

12 dates, written by Grand Hotels of the World from the sources below.

1884
Shipping magnate George Nipper completes ‘The Grand’, designed by Charles Webb in Renaissance Revival style.
1886
Sold to a company led by temperance leader James Munro, who publicly burns the liquor licence and runs it as the Grand Coffee Palace.
1888
Webb more than doubles the building, adding the ballroom, the grand staircase and the twin mansard-roofed towers.
1897
A new owner merges it with the Old White Hart Hotel, restores the licence and revives the name Grand Hotel.
January 1898
Delegates finalising Australia’s Constitution at Parliament House across the street stay here and meet informally.
1920
Refurbished under new owners, it is renamed the Windsor Hotel in honour of the royal family and becomes ‘the Duchess of Spring Street’.
1976
Threatened by tower projects, it is bought by the Hamer state government to secure its preservation.
1980
The hotel is leased to The Oberoi Group.
1983
Oberoi’s US$6.6 million restoration revives the 19th-century colour schemes and the Grand Dining Room chandeliers.
1990
The Cain government sells the freehold to Oberoi.
2005
Oberoi sells the hotel to the Indonesian Halim family; long-running redevelopment proposals follow.
May 2010
The Australian Senate formally recognises the hotel’s national significance.