HOTEL DARWIN ON THE
CNR MITCHELL ST & THE ESPLANADE
DARWIN NT 0800
PHOTOS: LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES NT
DARWIN NT 0800
PHOTOS: LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES NT
The Hotel Darwin on the Esplanade was one of Darwin's most beloved buildings and one of the great works of tropical modernism in Australia.
Known affectionately as the "Grand Old Duchess," it was designed by D.K. Turner of Stephenson and Turner, architects of Sydney and Melbourne, after Turner had made a study tour of leading hotels in the Dutch East Indies and Singapore, travelling to Bali specifically to understand how the best tropical hotels of the era handled climate, ventilation and the relationship between interior and landscape. The design was directly informed by what he found there.
The hotel was built by Gaskin Brothers of Sydney, who won the contract, for an Adelaide syndicate. It was constructed on the site of the existing Club Hotel in Mitchell Street, which was retained in operation until the new building was complete and then demolished entirely. The cost was £50,000. Construction began in early 1940 and the building was completed in 1941.
The design placed all 30 bedrooms on the first floor, each with its own shower room and lounge balcony.
The ground floor was given entirely to social amenities: a large entrance hall, shopping arcade, travel bureau, cloakrooms, a lounge bar and a dining room of generous proportions.
The building is two storeys with an open courtyard facing the sea, and was designed to allow maximum air movement through all rooms. Air conditioning was provided to the main rooms and lounges.
Turner specified reinforced concrete with tiled floors and minimal use of timber, which he considered a harbour for cockroaches and other insects.
Tropical furniture in light colours was used throughout. External surfaces were finished in Boncote cement paint, selected for its performance under the extreme conditions of the Northern Territory, ranging from scorching arid conditions to weeks of deluging monsoonal rain.
The hotel survived the bombing of Darwin in 1942 and Cyclone Tracy in 1974, sustaining damage in both events but remaining structurally intact when much of the city around it was destroyed. It was neither war nor cyclone that ended it.
By the 1990s the building was reported to be structurally compromised. The owners, the Paspalis Hotel Investment Group, announced their intention to demolish it on 9 September 1999 after receiving two reports confirming serious doubts about the structural integrity of the building.
The National Trust of the NT called on Planning Minister Tim Baldwin to intervene through the Heritage Conservation Act. A Supreme Court injunction sought on 10 September failed to stop the demolition. Within minutes of the final ruling, heavy equipment moved in.
Outraged protesters attempted to save the hotel and police worked to defuse the situation. By the morning of 11 September 1999 the Hotel Darwin had been demolished. It was seen by many as an act of vandalism, the loss of an icon with deep associations with old Darwin summarily removed after nearly sixty years of service.
The demolition inspired a song. Canadian singer Cathy Miller recorded "The Grand Old Duchess: Hotel Darwin 1940-1999" in 2000, with John Hammat on piano, Ritchie Millard on bass, and a choir of Darwin musicians including Merrilee Mills, Peter Bate, John Bunge, Peter Haines and Tony Suttor, recorded and mixed by Ken Hutton at Kakadu Studios in Darwin.
A bar at the rear of the original site, formerly known as the Hot and Cold Bar, continues to operate under the name Hotel Darwin.
Heritage Status: Not Listed (demolished).
Known affectionately as the "Grand Old Duchess," it was designed by D.K. Turner of Stephenson and Turner, architects of Sydney and Melbourne, after Turner had made a study tour of leading hotels in the Dutch East Indies and Singapore, travelling to Bali specifically to understand how the best tropical hotels of the era handled climate, ventilation and the relationship between interior and landscape. The design was directly informed by what he found there.
The hotel was built by Gaskin Brothers of Sydney, who won the contract, for an Adelaide syndicate. It was constructed on the site of the existing Club Hotel in Mitchell Street, which was retained in operation until the new building was complete and then demolished entirely. The cost was £50,000. Construction began in early 1940 and the building was completed in 1941.
The design placed all 30 bedrooms on the first floor, each with its own shower room and lounge balcony.
The ground floor was given entirely to social amenities: a large entrance hall, shopping arcade, travel bureau, cloakrooms, a lounge bar and a dining room of generous proportions.
The building is two storeys with an open courtyard facing the sea, and was designed to allow maximum air movement through all rooms. Air conditioning was provided to the main rooms and lounges.
Turner specified reinforced concrete with tiled floors and minimal use of timber, which he considered a harbour for cockroaches and other insects.
Tropical furniture in light colours was used throughout. External surfaces were finished in Boncote cement paint, selected for its performance under the extreme conditions of the Northern Territory, ranging from scorching arid conditions to weeks of deluging monsoonal rain.
The hotel survived the bombing of Darwin in 1942 and Cyclone Tracy in 1974, sustaining damage in both events but remaining structurally intact when much of the city around it was destroyed. It was neither war nor cyclone that ended it.
By the 1990s the building was reported to be structurally compromised. The owners, the Paspalis Hotel Investment Group, announced their intention to demolish it on 9 September 1999 after receiving two reports confirming serious doubts about the structural integrity of the building.
The National Trust of the NT called on Planning Minister Tim Baldwin to intervene through the Heritage Conservation Act. A Supreme Court injunction sought on 10 September failed to stop the demolition. Within minutes of the final ruling, heavy equipment moved in.
Outraged protesters attempted to save the hotel and police worked to defuse the situation. By the morning of 11 September 1999 the Hotel Darwin had been demolished. It was seen by many as an act of vandalism, the loss of an icon with deep associations with old Darwin summarily removed after nearly sixty years of service.
The demolition inspired a song. Canadian singer Cathy Miller recorded "The Grand Old Duchess: Hotel Darwin 1940-1999" in 2000, with John Hammat on piano, Ritchie Millard on bass, and a choir of Darwin musicians including Merrilee Mills, Peter Bate, John Bunge, Peter Haines and Tony Suttor, recorded and mixed by Ken Hutton at Kakadu Studios in Darwin.
A bar at the rear of the original site, formerly known as the Hot and Cold Bar, continues to operate under the name Hotel Darwin.
Heritage Status: Not Listed (demolished).