Hotel Cecil (Southport)

Tenders for the construction of the original two storey wooden building on the site were called for in July 1907 with plans available for viewing at Stephens and Tozer's offices at 240 Queen Street, Goodna, Brisbane, Queensland.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19374905 |title=Advertising |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |volume=LXIV |issue=15,460 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=31 July 1907 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} The building was constructed by D.J. Coulster with R.M. Pidd working as the leading hand.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133763365 |title=Cecil Hotel |newspaper=South Coast Bulletin |volume=10 |issue=525 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=3 June 1938 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} From early February 1908 the hotel was advertising for staff and,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article177159562 |title=Advertising |newspaper=The Telegraph |issue=10,986 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=3 February 1908 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=4 (SECOND EDITION) |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19518474 |title=Advertising |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |volume=LXIV |issue=15,686 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=21 April 1908 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}} by early March 1908, it was welcoming guests and advertised as being 'newly erected'.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article124251029 |title=Advertising |newspaper=Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser |volume=XLIX |issue=7261 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=10 March 1908 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article124251139 |title=Hotel Cecil, Southport. |newspaper=Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser |volume=XLIX |issue=7261 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=10 March 1908 |access-date=4 May 2016 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The first proprietor and host of the Hotel Cecil was Harry Taylor, formerly a blacksmith at Nerang,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article21619954 |title=COUNTRY NEWS. |newspaper=The Queenslander |volume=LXII |issue=1366 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=25 January 1902 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=212 (Unknown) |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article162062142 |title=Advertising |newspaper=Logan And Albert Bulletin |issue=750 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=1 September 1899 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} who arranged for the construction of the building, owned the freehold on the property and occupied the hotel as the licensee with his wife and daughter.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article100868660 |title=Southport. |newspaper=Queensland Country Life |location=Queensland, Australia |date=1 November 1909 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=19 |via=National Library of Australia}} Reservations for the hotel, which had capacity to accommodate 40 guests, could be made in advance by sending a postcard. The hotel offered a horse drawn buggy service that transported guests from the nearby Southport Railway Station on the South Coast railway line, Queensland to the hotel.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19523157 |title=Advertising |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |volume=LXV |issue=15,780 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=8 August 1908 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=16 |via=National Library of Australia}} In addition to guests intending to stay overnight, day trippers taking advantage of special excursion trains from the surrounding areas could spend the day at Southport and dine at the Cecil Hotel before returning home in the evening.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article125988718 |title=Excursion to Southport. |newspaper=Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser |volume=XLIX |issue=7367 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=26 October 1908 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=5 (DAILY) |via=National Library of Australia}}

The hotel was also the venue for significant functions including an official dinner for the Governor-General of India Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, in 1926.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article21052987 |title=A Canker. |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |issue=21,366 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=19 July 1926 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}} Other gatherings that took place included balls,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article188876043 |title=RED CROSS BALL |newspaper=South Coast Bulletin |volume=13 |issue=711 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=12 December 1941 |access-date=22 November 2016 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} school reunions,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article40894297 |title=Southport |newspaper=The Courier-mail |issue=1875 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=5 September 1939 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=5 (Second Section.) |via=National Library of Australia}} meetings of the local Chamber of Commerce{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article21011833 |title=Southport. |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |issue=21,219 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=27 January 1926 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=19 |via=National Library of Australia}} and fund raising events.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article188790375 |title=Legacy Benefits |newspaper=South Coast Bulletin |issue=1011 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=29 October 1947 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=16 |via=National Library of Australia}}

A number of prominent local people were associated with the Hotel Cecil including Sidney Monkhouse, Vincent, W. Austen, M.C. Gosling, W.J. Gorman and Cyril Hornibrook Culby.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38490774 |title=HOTEL LICENCES TRANSFERRED |newspaper=The Courier-mail |issue=866 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=9 June 1936 |access-date=25 November 2016 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}

In June 1938 the then owners of the hotel, the Queensland Brewery Ltd, with the licensee Thomas Campbell Andrews, oversaw the relocation of the original timber structure to another location on the same site prior to construction of a new two storey brick hotel.{{cite web|title=Southport Stories|url=http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/documents/bf/southport-stories-full-version.pdf|website=City of Gold Coast|publisher=City of Gold Coast|access-date=18 November 2016}} Andrews, a Southport businessman and bachelor originally from Mudgeeraba, had taken over the licence in 1936 and held it until his sudden death in 1939 a few months after the new building was completed.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article226636246 |title=OBITUARY |newspaper=The Border Star |location=Queensland, Australia |date=3 February 1939 |access-date=25 November 2016 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133657163 |title=PROMINENT CITIZEN PASSES |newspaper=South Coast Bulletin |volume=11 |issue=560 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=3 February 1939 |access-date=25 November 2016 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The new hotel was designed by Addison and MacDonald, an architectural firm that was active between 1927 and 1947 that consisted of George Frederick Addison, the son and business partner of one of Brisbane's earliest architects George Henry Male Addison, and Herbert Stanley MacDonald formerly of Hall and Prentice.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20540709 |title=Death of Mr. G. H. M. Addison. |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |issue=19,984 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=7 February 1922 |access-date=25 November 2016 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50614789 |title=Architect's death; 65 |newspaper=The Courier-mail |location=Queensland, Australia |date=13 December 1954 |access-date=25 November 2016 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} In addition to designing the Goondiwindi Civic Centre, the firm undertook work for both the Queensland Brewery Company and Castlemaine Perkins during this period, including the XXXX Brewery and the State Heritage Registered Castlemaine Perkins Building and Queensland Brewery Company Building.{{cite web|title=A directory of Queensland Architects to 1949|url=https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:151975/flop_5.pdf|website=University of Queensland|author=Donald Watson and Judith McKay|publisher=University of Queensland Library|access-date=6 May 2016}} The architects reported that the Queensland Brewery Ltd, had given them a 'free hand' in designing the 'palatial structure'{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38713473 |title=Southport |newspaper=The Courier-mail |issue=1599 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=17 October 1938 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}} which was built by K.E. Morris of Brisbane.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133761842 |title=New Hotel Cecil |newspaper=South Coast Bulletin |volume=10 |issue=549 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=18 November 1938 |access-date=4 May 2016 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Construction took four months and, in October 1938, the new saloon and public bars were officially open.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133761842 |title=New Hotel Cecil |newspaper=South Coast Bulletin |volume=10 |issue=549 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=18 November 1938 |access-date=5 May 2016 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133762782 |title=Hotel Cecil |newspaper=South Coast Bulletin |volume=10 |issue=545 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=21 October 1938 |access-date=4 May 2016 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} The new Art Deco styled hotel was reported as having 'outstanding architectural features' with a curved facade facing the corner of Scarborough and Nerang Streets with the name of the hotel in cement letters accented in red and pale green. Twenty guest rooms were located on the first floor with the bridal suite featuring a curved private balcony overlooking the intersection below. The exterior of the building included brown and cream tiles with Venetian red bricks cut through with cream bands. The roofing tiles were multi-coloured Marseilles tiles. The interior decoration of the hotel was in red, green and autumnal tones and featured polished chromium strips and patterned sand blasted glass doors with seaside themed decorative elements.

After World War II, the hotel was leased for twenty years to Claude and Hedwig Anna Slack (née Eschenhagen) after they ceased running a guest house in London and returned to Australia. The Eschenhagen family had a strong association with the hospitality industry in Queensland and were well respected early caterers and restaurateurs in Brisbane. Following her involvement with the Hotel Cecil, Anna Slack retired in Southport.{{cite journal|last1=Summers|first1=H. J.|title=The Eschenhagens: Saga of a Celebrated Family|journal=Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland|date=1977|volume=10|issue=2|pages=135–144|url=http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:204862/s00855804_1976_77_10_2_135.pdf|access-date=18 November 2016}}

The hotel underwent a refurbishment in 2000 to create office and retail space which is leased to a variety of tenants.{{cite news|title=Investors poised to quit; landmark Southport hotel|work=The Gold Coast Bulletin|issue=18 May 2007}} In 2014, the track for the Gold Coast Light Rail was constructed along the northern street and eastern frontages of the building. The main station for Southport is located opposite the hotel in the middle of Southport's central business district.{{cite web|title=Southport|url=http://ridetheg.com.au/stations/southport/|website=G:link|access-date=25 November 2016}}

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• [https://digitalbank.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:22590?f1=sm_creator%3A%22Unknown%22&f0=sm_subject%3A%22Hotels--Queensland--Southport--1940-1949--Photographs%22 Historic photographs of the hotel]

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Category:Southport, Queensland

Category:Pubs in Queensland

Category:Hotels in Queensland

Category:Buildings and structures on the Gold Coast, Queensland

Category:Art Deco architecture in Queensland

Category:Restaurants in Queensland

Category:Tourism on the Gold Coast, Queensland